The Clay Warrior
by Markition Necrovius
Summary: The story of the ninja who fought with clay, joined an organization of missing nin, managed to take down a Kazekage, and fell in love with a puppet. [DeidaraSasori yaoi]
1. Chapter 1

A/N:

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, so don't sue.

Warning: Overuseage of the word 'yeah'.

Author's notes:

Just in case someone doesn't know, spats are socks that clip under the foot, or in other words what the Akatsuki members are wearing on their feet. Danna means 'master', but can also be used to mean something like 'husband', as well.

I originally posted this up on a looong time ago, so the facts in the beginning are a bit off. At the time it hadn't been revealed that Hidan was the most recent member to join, and I haven't gone back to edit it yet. And for the sake of my own sanity, some of it will not be changing at all. This is for fun, right? I'm not going to keep updating the entire story for facts revealed in the manga. Also, because I know someone is going to comment on it, I know the official translation of Deidara's "un," is "hmm." But that was up to question when I first started this story, too, and frankly, I've gotten attached to the "yeah." Soo...without further ado, the fic.

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"Ak-at-su-ki, yeah? Well, guess this is the place."

Deidara crumpled the piece of paper in his hand, making sure to close the mouth on his palm so he wouldn't get any paper cuts. The down side of having small mouths on each of your palms- it made you very conscious of what you grabbed on to. He threw the piece of paper over his shoulder, letting it land wherever the wind brought it, and stared up at the cliff before him.

The area was pleasing to the eye, with a large cliff surrounded by a small lake. Deidara stood effortlessly on the water before a rather peculiar structure, the only oddity in the beautiful backdrop. It looked like a gateway, something he'd expect to find posing as the entrance to a courtyard. But it was in front of a sheer cliff face- there was only rock behind it. Sure, the rock wall looked almost like it had been carved, or at least a section of it did, but that didn't help him find this 'Akatsuki'.

Moodily Deidara crossed his arms over his chest, consciously forcing himself to stop fingering the cloth bag strapped to his right leg. It was feeling light, which made him even more uneasy about this whole thing. If he ran out of clay, he ran out of his best attack method- and was restricted to normal every-day jutsus. Sure, he was considered a genius, but from what he'd gathered of this 'Akatsuki', 'everyday' jutsus just weren't going to cut it.

Of course, that was just about all he knew about the Akatsuki.

He received an invitation to join the organization two weeks ago. He'd been in a run-down tavern, in the midst of the slums of a small town. After staying there for a day- that night would be his second night in the tavern, he was reaching the last of his money. He was going to have to do something about his finances. Leaving Iwagakure had seemed like a good idea at the time- he was powerful, more powerful than any of his peers could ever hope to become, and the village was just too unappreciative of art- specifically his art. So why not leave it? But his money was quickly running out, and soon he'd either be reduced to stealing from travelers like a petty criminal or...or...

Getting a job. Working. Wasting his artistic genius at some petty manual labor.

So Deidara had planned to fully enjoy that last night in the tavern as much as he could, dreading the following day where he would be forced to do something short of sleeping outdoors. He'd spent the day wandering around the town, searching for easy one-day jobs that could earn him some cash, but he'd had very limited luck. So, he returned to the tavern with a long face and feeling slightly less energetic than he usually did.

But his morose mood disappeared in a flash of adrenaline as soon as his foot crossed the door jamb- his senses pricked and his visible blue eye widened as he sensed a chakra that had definitely not been in the town that morning. It was powerful, and Deidara didn't recognize it. He scanned the dim main room of the tavern as his hand reached to his bag of clay, unlatching the lid deftly and slipping inside.

Then his eye met a pair of bored ones. The man was sitting on the far side of the tavern, sipping a steaming cup of something. A black coat shrouded his features below his chin, and would have looked normal save the red clouds decorating it. A ring was on his left index finger, which caught Deidara's eye because he didn't seem like the type of man to wear jewelry. He had light hair that was slicked back close to his scalp, with no bangs. Deidara personally thought that made him look like his forehead was rather large, but the man obviously didn't agree. Then he realized that next to wearing a ring, the man's fingernails were painted. And that color was _not_ flattering on him at all.

The man gestured for Deidara to come sit across the small table from him, and Deidara reluctantly obeyed. He wasn't quite sure why- this man was powerful, and with Deidara's luck, he was probably hostile. But it wasn't like he'd attacked yet, so maybe there was a hope that he wasn't.

Deidara sat down and slipped his right hand out of his clay bag. He left it open, and his right hand rested on his thigh right near the lip of the bag, but he didn't want to seem outright hostile to the man. It wouldn't be in good spirit to start fights without a reason.

The man grinned as soon as Deidara was settled. Deidara wasn't sure if he was supposed to be scared or relieved by the grin- it had a distinctly menacing kind of feel. "You're Deidara, right?"

Deidara blinked. How did this man know his name...? Only nins from the Iwagakure knew about him- and this man was definitely not from the Hidden Rock. But he nodded, when he realized that the man was waiting for affirmation.

"Good. My name's Hidan- nice to meet ya. I've got a little proposition for ya." The man said, and his laid-back speech only made his statement feel conspiratorial. His name gave Deidara a strange chill as well, though he wasn't quite sure why.

"Alright. What is it, yeah?"

Hidan gave him a strange look, probably for Deidara's habit of tagging a 'yeah' on the end of almost everything he said, but he didn't say anything about it. Instead, he shrugged and continued with his 'proposition'. "My boss sent me to offer you membership to our group, the Akatsuki. You're powerful, and we like that." The grin on Hidan's face seemed to widen. "You'll be given a place to stay and be given a bit of money."

That caught Deidara's attention. Money? This was exactly what he needed! A job!

Hidan hesitated, as if he knew what Deidara really wanted, and gave him a moment to digest that bit of information before proceeding. As he spoke, he fished a small piece of paper out of his pocket and laid it flat on the table. Deidara could see there was writing on it, but he couldn't read it at that angle. "Go there, if you're interested. The boss'll give you the details."

Then, without even paying for his drink, Hidan stood and left the tavern. Deidara stared at his retreating back for a moment before picking up the piece of paper and reading it. It read;

'Akatsuki-

30 mi east, cliff facing south. Gate at the base.'

They were directions, and exactly what had brought Deidara to the cliff he was staring incredulously at. He scanned the area around the cliff once more, to make sure there was nothing he'd missed, and hefted a sigh that ruffled his straw-colored bangs. He walked towards the wooden gate, and as he approached the rock face he realized that there was some sort of talisman on the stone. He couldn't read it without activating the enhancer on his left eye, or jumping up to it, so he ignored it until he got closer. But it flickered as he approached and an entire section of the cliff began to rumble. Deidara stepped back, but instantly forgot his surprise as the moving rock revealed an entrance shrouded in darkness. Curious, he didn't even wait for the rock to stop moving before slipping under it and walking into the corridor.

It was cold and damp and everything Deidara would have expected from a cave. The moist chill went right through his thin shirt- of course, the shirt had sleeves made of netting, so it really wasn't made to ward off the cold in the first place. But he'd grown up in Iwagakure- he was familiar with caves, just as a shinobi from Konoha would be familiar with the forest, and a Suna shinobi would be familiar with the desert.

It was because of all the time he'd spent underground that he could hear the change in the echoes of his footsteps meaning he was coming upon a cavern. And indeed, a few steps later the temperature dropped a few degrees further and the air became stagnant. It smelt faintly of blood- a coppery scent that coated the top of his mouth. Usually he enjoyed the smell of blood- it meant that there was artwork nearby. Well, possibly. It depended on how skilled the killer was, on how much of an artist he was. But this scent was _old_- it just added to the heavy feel of the unmoving air.

It was also uncomfortably empty. Caves were supposed to have stalagmites and an uneven ground- dips where water had once run, or debris from animals that had taken refuge there. Though with the moving rock acting as a door, no animal was stupid enough to try to get in.

The whole place had Deidara on edge, and his hand was back by his clay bag, fiddling with the latch. He tried not to look too uneasy- he was a powerful ninja, he could handle himself in a fight. But there was something _odd_ about the cave and it was bugging him.

He had walked all the way to the middle of the cavern before a man appeared before him. Or at least, the silhouette of one. It looked like some kind of projection jutsu- the man was obviously somewhere else, and this was just a creation of chakra, but it was rather accurate. Well, from what Deidara could see. The light in the cave was dim- he wasn't quite sure where the small amount of light was coming from, which was rather disconcerting, but the shadow looking at him could pass for a man if it had features. The only feature on the shadow were eyes, strange eyes that were staring at him like it knew exactly what he was thinking, knew exactly what he'd done in his past, what he'd accomplish in his future. And that single note of an arrogant 'I know something you don't' in that gaze had Deidara instantly disliking the man.

"It's not nice to stare like that, yeah." Deidara pointed out pleasantly, smirking to hide his unease. Why had he even come here?

"So you decided to take the offer." The silhouette stated, as if Deidara joining the Akatsuki was already official.

Oh yeah, that was why he'd come. For the money.

"What exactly is the offer, yeah? That Hidan guy only said that the organization's name is Akatsuki. What do you do, yeah?" Deidara asked, slowly easing his hand away from his clay pouch. If they were going to try and attack him, they would have done so already. This was ignoring that Deidara still wasn't sure who 'they' was.

"Are you familiar with the bijuu?"

And thus began the explanation of what exactly the mysterious Akatsuki did. It didn't take the shadow, who identified himself as the Leader, long to tell what was expected of Deidara, what his missions would be like, and what is goal was. He also covered what his pay would be and what kind of lodgings the Akatsuki provided.

"The Akatsuki itself is rather small," The Leader said. "We have minions in influential places, and our underlings amass to a small army, but there is only room for ten actual members. While our final goal is to capture all of the Jinchuuriki, we are payed to do other missions to keep an income. The missions are for the most part missions that no one else will take- they are dangerous, because the Akatsuki is made up of only the strongest missing nin, to the point where they will probably start wars. We do missions hidden villages want done, so the village doesn't get its hands dirty." At this point the Leader began walking to the far end of the cavern from the door, and Deidara followed.

So far, this seemed like his kind of place. Deidara lived for danger when he wasn't living for art, and if he managed to live for both all the better. He loved adrenaline, he loved action, he loved explosions. It was one giant moment of art in his opinion- the sweet moment of a body being torn apart by a fiery explosion, the breathtaking view of a ninja fighting for his life against kunai, and losing his life as a lucky projectile tears open his throat.

"I've called a meeting to induct you as a new member." The Leader continued, slowing down as they reached the wall of the cavern. "You will be assigned to the bijuu Shukaku, the one-tail." The Leader raised his translucent hand to the rock and a portion of the stone slid inward an inch, then shifted to the side. It was almost silent, and before he could prepare himself Deidara's eye was bombarded with light from the room on the other side of the rocky door.

"Now, for your equipment."

XXXXXX

"You have _got_ to be kidding me, yeah. You expect me to wear _that_ on my nails?"

That outcry earned Deidara a stern look from Leader. They were standing in the room beyond the cavern, which turned out to be an entryway of sorts to an entire complex built inside the cliff. Deidara didn't have time to admire the workmanship, as much as he wanted to, though. Leader had marched him right over to a table, set up just right of the stone door. The only other exit to the room was opposite the stone door, and it was an open entryway into what looked to be a hall. The floors of the room were light- a kind of clinically white tile for walls and a gray floor, as if whoever had built the room had known that any person entering the room would have come from the dark cavern and wanted to cause them as much misery as they could. It was a pain to wait for his eye to adjust, but Deidara was a real ninja and he dealt.

When his vision finally cleared he stared incredulously at what was resting on the table, which the Leader was busy telling him about. There was a coat, like the one Hidan had been wearing- it was black with red clouds, and looked to be about Deidara's size. Which made him a bit wary. How had they gotten his size? If any of them had snuck into his room in that tavern and unpacked his only other set of clothes...

But that wasn't the biggest shock. The coat was okay- he didn't mind it that much, besides that it was rather strange looking. There was also a pair of navy blue pants and a navy blue shirt, a pair of bleach white spats, and blue shoes. The shoes were normal- almost every other nin alive wore shoes like that. The pants were also okay, and the Leader had said that the shirt really didn't matter that much as long as he kept the coat buttoned up. But _spats_?

Alright, he would deal with spats and a weird coat for money. It was worth it.

Next came a straw hat, which had strange little white strips of cloth hanging from the rim. And a bell on a red string. Deidara liked that touch- the bell would be kind of fun to play with when he was walking...so the hat he liked. Then Leader showed him his ring, which had three horizontal lines on it. It was also a pretty blue color, so Deidara liked that as well. The Leader seemed rather specific about him wearing it on his right index finger, but Deidara waved that off. There was probably some kind of weird hierarchy system having to do with what finger you wore your ring on.

But then Deidara noticed a strange little bottle of purple paint on the table. He'd picked it up and examined it, noticing that it was the same color that Hidan's nails had been. He'd been about to ask the Leader what it was for, when the Leader told him that he was to keep his fingernails and toenails painted that color at all times.

"All of the other members manage to keep their nails painted without complaint. And there are quite a few that are significantly more masculine than you are. You should have no trouble pulling it off." The Leader stated dryly.

"But- but- why _purple_, yeah? Why not black or white or something _neutral_?" Deidara grimaced and set the bottle down on the table. So that was why Hidan was wearing that ugly color.

"Do you want to join or not? You have to wear it if you want membership." The Leader stated, effectively avoiding the why, he indeed made all of the members of the Akatsuki wear purple nail polish.

Deidara stared at the items on the table- particularly the purple nail polish- before glancing back up at the Leader's eyes. Was money worth wearing purple nail polish?

Yes, it was. Because this was probably the only chance Deidara was going to get to be payed for practicing his art.

"Alright. I'll do it, yeah." Deidara mumbled, picking up the coat and shaking it out, just in case.

"Good. The rest of the group should already be in the cavern." The Leader stalked off towards the door that they had come from. "Grab your stuff and come in when you're ready." He then opened the sliding rock door and stepped back into the dark cavern.

Deidara sighed and looked back to the table. The coat hung limp in his hands, and to Deidara's relief, clean. With some trepidation he swung the black and red garment over his shoulders and buttoned up the front, slipping his arms through the sleeves. It was actually quite comfortable, for all its weirdness. He left the collar unbuttoned, so the coat only left his neck and shoulders exposed.

Next came the pretty little ring, which he slipped onto his right index finger, just as the Leader had told him to. It wasn't uncomfortable- in fact, he barely noticed it. But that had him worried that he was going to loose it or something. Or accidentally eat it with one of his mouths.

He had to unbutton the coat to take his pack off to pack away the pair of pants and the shirt. His pack was small- he preferred not to have to lug around a huge sack, so the clothes barely fit into it. But he managed, and he was able to shove the shoes into it as well. The spats he glared at evilly before sticking them into the pack, still in disbelief that he was going to have to walk around in public in those. Once everything was packed away- including the nail polish and spats- he slung the pack back over his shoulders and put the coat back on. He held the hat in his hand, figuring he could wear it later.

He walked up to the sliding stone door once he was done and waited in front of it. And waited. After a minute, he frowned and examined the door, which really only looked like a slab of stone. There had to be some trick to get it to open- but the Leader hadn't pushed any buttons or made any hand signs. So what did he have to do to get it open?

Deidara began feeling around the stone with his fingertips, looking for hidden buttons or a latch or something. When, after five minutes, he found nothing but smooth stone, he stepped back and tried a few common hand signs for jutsus. After another five minutes of trying hand signs, he began saying passwords off the top of his head.

"Open, yeah! Er...Lift! Move! Akatsuki! Erm...bijuu! Jinchuuriki!" Deidara crossed his arms, staring moodily at the unmoving rock. "What do I have to do to get you open, yeah?"

After trying a few more hopeless sayings, Deidara finally reached into his clay bag with his hand, and pulled out a small glob of red clay. His palm's mouth ate it, then spit it out seconds later. Deidara threw the now spider-shaped piece of clay at the rock, did a hand sign, and grinned as the moving clay spider stuck itself to the rock. "So, you don't want to open for me, yeah? Well, take this!"

Deidara jumped back and flared his chakra, and the clay responded by blowing up. The force of the explosion was enough to send a crack right down the middle of the stone, and an ominous grinding sound told Deidara that the crack ran right through. When the smoke cleared the blond stepped up to the rock and kicked it hard on the fissure, causing the two masses of stone to fall out and to the sides. He met seven startled pairs of eyes with a grin.

"Your door's broken, yeah."

The Leader was standing off to Deidara's left, an astonished look in his eyes. "Was that _really _necessary?"  
But Deidara didn't get the chance to respond to the Leader's comment. One of the figures to Deidara's right burst out laughing and walked up to him. The figure was dressed in the coat and hat that were the dress code, and the hilt of a sword peeked over his shoulder. The light from the room behind Deidara revealed the man's skin to be blue in color, which Deidara found rather strange. The man's eyes were also odd- they were silver in color, small, and round. The man resembled a shark.

A grin was on the man's face by time he reached Deidara, and he'd stopped laughing. He was looking down at the shorter blond with something akin to approval. "I like you already, kid." The man then glanced over to the Leader. "Can I partner with 'im?"

The Leader still seemed rather put off about the door, and was glaring both the man and Deidara down. "No, Kisame. I have another partner in mind for you. He just hasn't arrived yet."

A large shape that Deidara had barely noticed stepped forward. Or rather, it slid. Was it even human? It was large, short, but was wearing the coat and hat, so Deidara had to assume that it was a member. Whatever it was. "Then he's mine?"

"Yes." The Leader answered, looking at the large thing. "Deidara, this is your new partner, Akasuna no Sasori."

Sasori hadn't seemed too enthusiastic when he'd asked if Deidara was going to be his partner. He'd sounded like a man accepting a death sentence. Just because of that, Deidara sent a glare the creature's way, and crossed his arms. He liked the Kisame guy better.

"Alright, then, yeah." Deidara said, breaking into a grin as a thought occurred to him. "Since we're partners, I'm going to call you Sasori-danna, yeah."

Sasori stared at him. The Leader stared at him. Somewhere off to his right, he heard a snicker, probably from Kisame. He had a feeling that everyone there was staring at him, but he was just smirking evilly at Sasori, and ignoring the rest of the members. Sasori, who he was pretty sure was twitching right now.

"..._What?_" Deidara had to be pretty proud of himself there. It had taken at least a minute before Sasori had recovered from his speechless shock. Or, what Deidara assumed was speechless shock.

"So..." Deidara completely ignored Sasori and turned to the Leader, who was still looking a bit dumbfounded. "What's our first mission, yeah?"

It took the Leader a second before he realized that Deidara had spoken to him. "There's a town about a day's walk to the north. Get a hotel room there and I'll send a complete description of your mission to you."

Deidara nodded cheerfully before beginning to make his way over to the tunnel that led outside. He blinked and looked behind him when he realized Sasori was not following him. "Hey, Sasori-danna, you coming, yeah?"

There was that snicker again. Kisame must have been getting a kick out of all this. Not that Deidara minded his amusement- he was having fun as well.

Sasori began following slowly, and Deidara was once again not entirely sure whether he was walking or sliding. But whatever he was doing, Sasori was pretty fast, so Deidara couldn't complain. They were out of the cavern in a few minutes, and back into the sunshine. They walked off of the small lake in silence, and finally once they were on solid ground and a line of trees separated them from the entrance to the base, Sasori spoke.

"You aren't going to call me 'Sasori-danna' throughout our entire partnership." It wasn't a question, and Sasori sounded really serious.

Deidara's grin widened. "Of course I am. We're _partners_, yeah."

Sasori opted not to respond to that. Of course, that was fine with Deidara.

Suddenly wearing nail polish and spats seemed a fair price to pay for the amount of fun he was going to have in the Akatsuki.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own...though I wish I did...

Author's notes: Thanks for the reviews- they keep me writing. This chapter was actually fully written a week ago, I've just been having trouble finding a permanent beta. And I'm always overly critical of my own work, and paranoid that there are mistakes in it...so I always absolutely refuse to post it lest someone else has proof read it first.

Hmm...I still don't have a permanent beta, if anyone is interested.

Well, on to the chapter. Review, please.

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Chapter 2

Getting to the town the Leader had directed them to hadn't been a problem. Both Sasori and Deidara were powerful ninjas, and even though Deidara was still trying to figure out what exactly Sasori _was_, he moved at a speed fast enough that Deidara was actually pretty tired by the time they spotted the town amid the trees. The blond ninja had by that point decided that Sasori was sliding, not walking, because of an odd little trail he was leaving behind him.

It would still be a few minutes before they actually entered the town, and Deidara was getting very bored. He had his hands folded behind his head, and was walking at a pace that was fast enough to keep up with Sasori, but slow enough to get on Sasori's nerves.

"Hey, Sasori-danna." Deidara suddenly asked, his eyes on the trees above them. "Let's play a game, yeah."

"We're almost to the town. Can't you keep your foolish mouth shut until we get a hotel room?" Sasori hissed in return. But from Deidara's experience, he'd found Sasori to be constantly cold and unappreciative of Deidara's attempts at friendship, so Deidara had gotten used to responses like that.

"I spy with my little eye...something that is red, yeah." Deidara said cheerfully, the grin on his face widening at the aspect of playing 'I spy'.

Sasori looked over his shoulder and glared at Deidara. His expression didn't seem to change much...he was always glaring. Deidara was going to have to get him to smile. Or look confused, or get some kind of expression besides a glare on that face. Of course, it was hard to tell what expression was on his face in the first place, since it was half-covered with a bandana. That was also annoying. He didn't even know what his partner looked like.

Deidara sighed and lost his grin, and hit the little bell on his hat with a finger, making it ring. It figured that Sasori wouldn't play 'I Spy' with him. That bell made a pretty noise, though. He rang it again just for the hell of it, and Sasori shot him another dirty look.

They walked in silence for another minute or so, with only Deidara's bell ringing making any noise, when there was a noise off to the left, in the bushes. They both froze, like dutifull shinobi, and the bushes were on the receiving end of two scathing, searching stares. The foliage was silent, and neither Deidara nor Sasori moved for a full minute. Finally Deidara walked over to the bushes, his right hand hovering over his clay pouch- the lid was undone, so the clay was within easy reach. He reached his left hand out and was going to pull the plants aside, but a noise from directly behind him caught his attention.

He spun, and found Sasori surrounded by three men. They looked like bandits, with dirty clothes and rags hiding their faces from view, but they moved like missing nin. They were standing in a rough triangle around Sasori, so that one had his back to Deidara. All three were fit, like they had had some kind of physical training at some point, supporting Deidara's evaluation of the three being missing nin. The one with his back to Deidara had his hands free, ready to perform a jutsu by the looks of it. His hair was short, dark, and rather dirty looking, as was his skin. There were bulges at the hem of his shirt where a kunai holster was, and two short blades were in sheaths on either of his hips.

The one on the opposite side of Sasori had a katana unsheathed, and was standing in a fighting stance. It didn't look like he'd charge Sasori- it was the one that Sasori was directly facing, the third nin, that looked like he was ready to run at Sasori. The third one was holding a kunai in either hand, and was acting a bit on the twitchy side. Deidara couldn't see his face at all, due to the cloths he had wrapped around his head.

"Sasori-da-" Deidara had been about to warn Sasori to duck so Deidara could get off some of his clay bombs- there was a spider ready to be thrown in his hand already- but a gloved hand clamped over his mouth, and a strong arm wrapped around his chest, pinning his own arms to his side. He was dragged back and held against an equally strong chest. He must have been a ninja- it felt like he was amplifying his strength with chakra. Deidara could practically feel the chakra humming against him as it pulsed through the man's arm.

"Don't worry, hunny. We'll take care of your husband for ya, then yer all our's." The man holding Deidara hissed, right into Deidara's ear so his breath ghosted over Deidara's neck. That was _disgusting_.

Now, the first thought in Deidara's mind was that the man holding him was much stupider than any missing nin had any right to be. He would have liked to know how he escaped his village's hunter nin with that amount of intelligence, but at the moment pondering on that was not on the top of his list of things to do.

He really wasn't that worried about Sasori- these men, even if they were missing nin, were not that powerful. Which really said something about the tracking systems of the village they were from. If fools like these could evade a village, then the village had some work to do.

Deidara shifted enough to wrench a kunai from the hidden holster he had under his shirt. Though he had to slip his hand into the damn coat, which slowed him down quite a bit- he'd have to do something about that- he had two kunai in his left hand in less than a second, and it took even less time to have one kunai buried in the man's throat, the other in his stomach. The man went down with no more than a surprised gasp.

There was a mechanical clinking from over in Sasori's direction, and that was what had Deidara looking over at his partner. The man that Deidara thought would have charged did just that, with one of his arms reared back to throw one of his kunai. But the man that had charged found himself impaled through the stomach with the pointed tip of a tail that had snaked its way out from under Sasori's Akatsuki coat. It was segmented and looked like it had joints- it was definitely made of metal. That caught Deidara off guard- was it a prosthetic limb? Or maybe some kind of puppeteering thing? Deidara had heard puppeteers could control things other than actual puppets.

Deidara didn't stare for long, though. He threw the clay spider resting in his hand at the nin that had his back to him. Since his back was turned to Deidara the spider was able to come to life in midair and land on the nin without the nin noticing. Deidara let his chakra flair and the clay began to hiss, ready to explode...

But a metal tail snaked around the nin just as Deidara set the spider to explode. Deidara's eyes widened in surprise and he started to warn Sasori, even though he knew it was probably too late-

"Sasori-dan-"

And once again, Deidara didn't even get to finish saying Sasori's name, before getting interrupted. But this time, he was interrupted not by a hand clamping over his mouth, but the sharp crack of an explosion, and Sasori's curses as he leapt back and out of the way of the burning corpse.

The second man looked ready to run for it, so Deidara threw a small clay bird into the air and sent it after the man before checking to see if Sasori was alright. The nin began running, but the bird reached him and exploded before he got very far. Sasori glanced over to the man to make sure he was dead, then began examining his metal tail, which now looked worse for wear. Very worse for wear.

"Um..." Deidara began as he walked over to Sasori, picking up his hat that had fallen of at some point in the battle. "Sorry, yeah? I didn't know you were going to put your...er...tail there, yeah."

Sasori was running a hand over the joints of the tail, and was apparently ignoring Deidara. Several of said joints looked ready to fall apart towards the end of the tail, and the metal was scorched. Well...Deidara's bombs were never known for their subtlety.

When he made something explode, he made sure it _exploded._

Finally, after doing what he could to prevent the tail from falling apart right there, which involved tightening a few screws and using some kind of adhesive compound Sasori pulled out of the sleeve of his coat, Sasori looked over at Deidara, who was standing behind Sasori rather awkwardly. "We need to work on our teamwork." He said simply. "Because if you ever do that again I'm going to rip your throat out."

Deidara stared at Sasori for a moment, rather confused as to how he was supposed to respond. Sasori didn't really sound angry, but that threat was rather violent... "Sasori-danna's angry, yeah?" Deidara asked finally, grinning. It was a grin to hide his confusion, but he doubted Sasori could tell the difference.

Sasori stared at him blankly for a moment...though it still looked like a glare, because of the expression on his face, then turned around and began walking down the path again. Or sliding. Whatever. Deidara sighed and dragged the bodies over into a nearby bush then walked after Sasori.

He checked his clay bag as he ran to catch up, and frowned over the amount left. He only had enough clay left for two more small bombs...

Sasori was waiting for him at the entrance to the town. They were surprisingly close when they were attacked- some of the villagers probably heard Deidara's bombs. Why would missing nin be so close to a town like that? It increased their chances of being discovered and captured. Unless they were well out of their country's reach. Deidara hadn't found a headband on any of them, or any sign of what country they were from, but he was sure they were ninja. If Deidara hadn't blown the two smarter ones up, they would have begun using jutsus- the first one had begun using hand signs, he was sure of it.

Deidara sighed and decided it wasn't worth thinking about. He glanced to his right, where Sasori was sliding along silently. He was moving almost stiffly. Was he really that angry about the tail?

His frowned deepened, but he looked away from Sasori and glanced at the town around them. It was a good-sized place, though it seemed rather quiet. They weren't given a second glance, in their strange-looking coats, meaning that ninja probably passed through the town often. Something in the ninja profession meant that you had to dress eccentrically...

They passed a ramen shop, and Deidara contemplated stopping and getting some of the food with the small amount of money he had left, but Sasori didn't look like he was going to tolerate any more diversions. Just a hunch he had. And since he was feeling a bit guilty over the whole tail thing, Deidara decided not to put up a fuss about being hungry. He could complain later, once Sasori had calmed down.

But that served to remind Deidara that he had no good way to judge his new partner's mood. Deidara had always been adept at judging another's thoughts and emotions, but it all rested on expression and mannerism. Sasori hadn't once changed his expression in the day they'd spent together, and that cumbersome, sliding walk was so foreign to Deidara that he couldn't read anything in it.

With so much on his mind, Deidara found that they had reached the hotel without him noticing. It was a small, out-of-the way building, but it looked like it was in a decent condition. The front desk was humble but clean, and the staff member there looked to be in her late forties. She gave them a quizzical look when they entered, and an even more confused look when Deidara said they needed a room. She was looking at Sasori, even though she was clearly talking to Deidara. Probably thinking the same thing that Deidara had thought when he saw Sasori- what _was_ he?

"One bed or two?" The woman asked, looking like she dreaded the answer.

"Two, of course, yeah." Deidara answered, confused himself at that. Why would they want one bed...?

They got the key to their room without much trouble, with Sasori giving the woman enough money for two nights. Deidara was still confused over the whole bed thing as he unlocked the door and revealed a normal hotel room.

There were two beds along the left wall, and a sliding glass door leading to a small balcony on the wall opposite the door. The door to the bathroom was right beside the door out, on the right wall. There were a few pictures of landscapes on the walls, a lamp beside each bed, and two chairs and a table to the side of the sliding door.

It was a nice little room, and after dubbing it safe Deidara stepped in and sat on one of the beds. Sasori followed, doing that little slide thing he did, and neared the other bed. Deidara watched in curiosity as Sasori removed his hat, laying it on the bed. The first thought that crossed Deidara's mind as he layed eyes on the head that was revealed was 'Damn, he's _ugly_'. There was still a black bandana covering his mouth, but after seeing the head, Deidara wasn't sure he wanted to see the rest of his face. It was the first time Deidara had seen Sasori's entire head, what with the hat and all, and Deidara really wished he'd gotten Kisame as a partner. Sasori's personality was lacking, and he wasn't even pretty to look at.

His skin was dark, almost like wood. He was bald for the most part, save five strips of black hair that stuck up in back. It was strange looking, but he supposed with the heavy brow and bleary eyes, it matched. Sasori reached up to the coat hiding the rest of his body from view and began unbuttoning it, much to Deidara's horror. He let the black and red garment fall from his hunched shoulders, caught it in his right hand, and Deidara became very sure that Sasori was _not_ human.

His body was hulking and slouched over, and Deidara was sure the reason Sasori didn't really walk was because his legs couldn't support the rest of him. The tail was hanging limply, still looking quite broken, and, unlike the rest of him, the legs looked quite human. Well, the right hand looked pretty human as well. It occurred to Deidara that he had only seen Sasori use his right hand, never his left, and he was now looking at the reason why. Sasori's left hand was huge, and mechanical looking. The fingers looked more like cylinders of wood- the whole thing looked like a child's plaything, like it was hastily assembled and not bothered with and carved into an actual arm. It was big enough to hide something within it, though.

The arm was not the most alarming thing about Sasori's body. The strangest thing was Sasori's back- which Deidara saw when Sasori turned a little bit to put the coat on the bed. His back was a giant _face_- with a gaping mouth and frowning eyes. It was at that point that Deidara discovered that the thing he'd thought was a tail was actually that face's tongue. That was...creepy.

And then something else even more alarming than seeing the face happened. Sasori's back split in two. The face lifted up and away from his back, revealing a gaping hole where flesh should have been. And a man stepped _out_ of Sasori.

"...Sasori-danna?" Deidara almost stuttered as he said it, but managed to sound somewhat himself. What the heck...?

The man gave him a flat look. He had dull, unruly red hair that was just past his ears. His eyes were a bluish color, and had that bored note that Deidara always heard in Sasori's voice. His face was fair, though not as effeminate as Deidara's own, and he was pale. There were faint rings around his eyes, though Deidara wasn't sure whether it was due to lack of sleep or a natural feature of his face. He was wearing an Akatsuki coat buttoned up all the way so Deidara couldn't see the rest of him. There were two spat-covered blue shoes peeking out from the hem of the coat, though.

"What?" The man answered, and it was Sasori's voice. It was louder than before, but Deidara chalked that up to the fact that Sasori was talking from within that thing on the floor.

"...what _is_ that, yeah?" Deidara pointed at the thing Sasori had been walking around in, now lifeless on the ground.

Sasori looked down at the thing, blinked, then looked back at Deidara. "This is Hiruko." Sasori gestured vaguely when Deidara sent him a blank, I-don't-get-it look. "A puppet. I travel in him."

Deidara looked to Hiruko, then to Sasori. And stared. Well, maybe he did prefer Sasori to Kisame. Now that he was out of that horrid puppet-thing, he wasn't that bad looking.

Deidara rethought that last statement for a second. Scratch 'not bad looking'. He was _gorgeous_.

Sasori crouched down by Hiruko and began examining his tongue-tail thing with skilled fingers, and Deidara quickly got bored so he took the opportunity to remove his own hat and coat. He threw them onto his bed and removed his pack. He was still wearing his own shirt and pants, not the clothes the Leader had given him. Those were still stuffed in his pack with the last of his food.

Frowning as his stomach gave a rather persistant growl, Deidara began unpacking his bag so he could get at those rice balls he'd packed away last night. He laid the clothes the Leader had given him out, and put the shoes next to them. He laid his other change of clothes on top of the uniform, and then pulled out his headband from Iwagakure. He'd forgotten that he wasn't wearing that...

He felt his forehead unconsciously, his frown deepening. He'd stopped wearing the headband a few weeks ago, when he realized that it would make it a hell of a lot easier for Iwagakure to follow him if any villager that saw him could recognize what village he was from. He supposed he should get rid of it, instead of carrying it around with him...

"If you are going to start wearing that, you have to score a line through it." Sasori suddenly spoke up, making Deidara jump slightly.

Deidara glanced up, to find Sasori looking at him. He was holding Hiruko's tail in his lap, and a small metal tool was in his hand. Sasori glanced pointedly down at the headband Deidara was clutching in his grasp.

"What do you mean, yeah?" Deidara asked, raising an eyebrow. Vaguely he could remember that Kisame guy having a line through his headband. Kirigakure, if Deidara remembered correctly- and that made sense, considering Kisame had looked like a shark. But at the time he wasn't sure if it was actually a line through the headband's symbol that Deidara was seeing, or just a trick of the very fleeting light in the cavern, so he'd dissmissed it.

Sasori looked back down to Hiruko's tail, and began tinkering with it again. He'd already fixed one of the joints in the toughest shape- how had he gotten that far so fast? Was he really that good? "It's Akatsuki's protocol. All members are to have a line through their headband, to declare the fact that they no longer have any loyalties to their home town." The puppeteer said it as if he was reciting a speech he didn't much care for.

Deidara made a 'huh' sound and looked back down to the headband. It gleamed at him happily, a little smudged and dinged up, but still in a good condition. Headbands had a tendency to stay unnaturally unmarked, though. Even as a ninja who specialized in explosives, Deidara's headband was not scorched. He would have to figure out how simple pieces of metal managed that...

After staring at the metal for a moment, Deidara shrugged and fished a kunai out of the pack still sitting on the bed. With a decisive movement he scratched a deep line in the metal, right through Iwagakure's symbol. That was it, he supposed. He was officially no longer part of the Village hidden in the Rock. He could never return.

The thought occurred to Deidara that he should probably feel some kind of remorse for leaving. Loyalty had been drilled into him ever since he'd attended the ninja Academy- drilled with procedures that had convinced other ninja to give their lives for their village. So why was Deidara so special, that he was not weighed down by loyalty?

He had never really liked his home town. He was treated like normal people treated geniuses- with a distant respect. Even his parents hadn't been too close to him. Sure, they were proud of their blond-haired, blue-eyed son, a son that had come out on top of his class, outmatching even his seniors by far. But they were never really affectionate towards him. Though he couldn't really blame them- they were out on missions, doing their own duties as Jounin, after all.

No, Deidara didn't hold any grudges towards his old home. He just hadn't seen a reason to stay there. His superiors, his parents, his peers- they had all been confused by his art, some were even distrusting of it. So why stay in a place so filled with art haters?

Deidara tied the headband around his head idly, figuring he might as well wear it, since he'd marked it like that. He glanced up at Sasori as he tied the knot, who was completely focused on Hiruko's tail and ignoring the fact that Deidara existed.

Well, he was a puppet master, from what Deidara had gathered. He must know _something_ about art, right? It wouldn't hurt to ask him...

"Hey, Sasori-danna?" Deidara asked, staring at Sasori as he tinkered with the wires, wood, and metal that held Hiruko together. "What is art?"

Sasori looked up after a moment, letting the little tool he'd been using drop to rest against the metal plates of the tail. He was staring at Deidara in surprise, probably from the randomness of the question. His expression changed minutely- from a frown of concentration to a bemused look. "Art is what I live by. My puppets are all art, it is something that lasts until the ends of time." It might have just been Deidara, but Sasori sounded slightly less bored than he usually did.

It was a curt reply, probably meant to keep Deidara from asking any more questions, but it had caught the blond's attention. "That's not art, yeah. Art's the heat of battle. An explosion, the red of fire against a blue sky as bodies fly through the-"

"Why did you ask if you already knew?" Sasori asked, raising an eyebrow. He was starting to look bored again. Well, more bored than he usually looked.

"Because I wanted to see if you appreciated art, yeah. If you didn't, I'd go and complain to Leader-sama and get a new partner, yeah." Deidara stated, looking back down at the bag he was unpacking. He spotted a small object wrapped in brown parchment. There were those pesky rice balls.

"...You really care about it that much?" Sasori asked. Deidara glanced up but couldn't catch Sasori's gaze as the puppeteer began working on Hiruko again. He could tell Sasori was surprised, but he couldn't tell what Sasori was surprised _about_...

Deidara unwrapped the rice balls and bit into one, his eyes still trained on Sasori. The puppeteer's half-lidded eyes were trained on the metal tail of Hiruko, carefully lifting off the armor that had been scorched beyond repair. Sasori still wasn't meeting Deidara's eyes- he was doing that 'ignore that there is anyone else in the room' thing again. That was already getting on Deidara's nerves, and he'd only been in Sasori's presence for a day.

The other thing that was bugging him was the fact that he was having so much trouble reading Sasori. When Sasori had been walking around in Hiruko it had been frustrating enough- that scowl never left his face, though Deidara now understood why. If Hiruko was a puppet, that expression would never leave its face. Sasori had probably carved it like that to look more imposing, and Deidara had to admit Sasori had suceeded to some extent.

But Sasori getting out of Hiruko didn't help the expression issue any. Sasori's face was amazingly unexpressive; Deidara had never seen someone look so utterly bored in the middle of a conversation. He hadn't given away what he was thinking in the slightest- there wasn't even a twitch of an eyebrow to give Deidara an idea of how to act around him. Sasori could be planning to kill Deidara out of rage and Deidara wouldn't be able to tell. And that, above all else, got on Deidara's nerves. He hated when he couldn't predict someone else's emotions.

All through his childhood he'd found amusement in annoying those around him. He changed the way he acted according to the emotions and moods of other people, in just the right way to produce the most effect. Because of that he'd gotten too attached to that habit of knowing how angry everyone was by just watching them. Granted, knowing if a ninja was angry required one to know them reasonably well, and Deidara had just met Sasori. But still, the tranquility and passive boredome that Sasori seemed to wear like a shirt thwarted all Deidara's attempts at reading him.

Deidara sat on his bed, back to Sasori, with the rice balls in his hands. He opened the brown parchment and took one out, biting into it thoughtfully. He would have to work on reading Sasori, he decided. If only so he could get some amusement on those walks between towns. And if he couldn't gauge Sasori's anger efficiently, the reaction could range from none to Sasori actually carrying out one of those threats. Deidara didn't doubt that Sasori would- that threat earlier had sounded more like a warning than a safe threat.

Deidara ate the two rice balls that were left in the parchment in silence, with only the soft clinks and sharp clicks of Sasori working on his puppet to serve as background noise. He sighed, his hunger only whetted, when he realized that those rice balls were the last of his provisions. This job had really come at a good time. Any longer, and Deidara would have had to go and rob some peasant. That was just lowly.

He threw the parchment on the floor with no regards to manners and shoved the clothes he'd dug out of his pack earlier back into the cloth bag, wadding them up tightly so they would fit. He threw the pack on the floor as well, with the opening undone, and a forlorn pair of pants half-hanging out. He kicked off his shoes, managing to land them both in the same region as the pack, and threw the coat and hat in the same direction. The result was a hap-hazard pile of clothes against the wall beside Deidara's bed, in the middle of an impeccably clean room.

With the bed clear, Deidara layed back on it with an appreciative sigh, and clasped his hands behind his head. He stared at the ceiling for a moment before closing his eyes. It was just past sunset; it was a bit early to be going to sleep, but if he got up early enough in the morning, maybe he could go and get some clay without Sasori noticing.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's notes: Alright, I have a beta, so things should move a bit faster now. Again, thanks to all of you for the reviews.

This chapter hits a couple of key points in both characters, so it may seem a bit jarring. I apologize for that...X.x But it'll smooth out in further chapters.

Alright. Now, to the chapter!

xxxxxxx

Chapter 3

Deidara opened the door to the hotel room with significantly less grace and silence than he had left with. He was just about completely covered, head to toe, in mud and clay. Of course, searching through the banks of a river did that to you.

He'd left early that morning, well before dawn. Sasori had been lying on the bed, unmoving, so he assumed that the puppet master had been sleeping. Deidara hadn't bothered to take his coat or hat, or to change into his uniform pants and shirt. That would have been a waste, considering what he was planning on doing. He would have had to wash the clothes he hadn't even had for a day yet.

He was rather relieved when he found that Sasori was sitting up in bed, working on Hiruko again. That meant he didn't have to worry about waking the puppet master up with his noisy return.

Sasori looked up and stared at Deidara as he walked into the room and dropped a rather heavy, damp bag next to his bed. It began to soak the carpet where it had landed, the moisture spreading in a slowly expanding circle around the tan cloth of the sack. Deidara ignored it. He also ignored the questioning look Sasori was giving him.

He stretched, sighed, and took off his shoes, leaving them next to the wet bag.

"Where were you?" Sasori finally asked.

Deidara didn't look up at him as he fished through his pack to find the pants the leader had given him. "Getting supplies, yeah."

Sasori was silent for a moment; the kind of silence that practically screamed 'you're hiding something and I want to know what it is'. "What kind of supplies?"

Deidara huffed and grabbed the wet, heavy sack and lifted it for Sasori to see. "Clay, yeah. Is that alright with you, oh all-powerful danna?"

Sasori seemed a bit taken aback by Deidara's biting comment, but Deidara couldn't bring himself to care much. He was filthy, tired, and hungry. Sasori was his partner, not his mother. He shouldn't need to know where Deidara was at every moment of the day.

The blond grabbed his change of clothes, stomped over to the bathroom, and slammed the door behind him, leaving a _very_ baffled Sasori staring in his wake.

Several minutes later, Deidara was staring at the shower head as it covered him in steaming water so hot it was reddening his skin. His thoughts had started along the lines of how he was going to find the time to enrich his clay with chakra, without Sasori questioning him, and finally wandered down to the subject of the puppet master himself. How was Deidara going to survive a partnership with someone so stoic and cold he could probably win a staring contest with a _wall_? And how was he going to avoid blowing up Sasori, when their fighting styles clashed so badly?

No, they didn't clash, Deidara corrected himself. They could work quite well together if they learned how to use teamwork. But that ran into the whole problem of Sasori not being the most friendly missing nin in the bunch. What, were they going to _train_? Somehow, the thought of that red-headed, cool young man standing in a field, doing something as boring as training was funny.

Deidara couldn't stop his thoughts from wandering back to that image. Sasori, without that horrid coat shrouding his visage, standing in a secluded field somewhere, his hair plastered to his face with a thin film of sweat...panting, probably, if he was training hard enough...trim frame straining against Deidara as they sparred, a slim view of milky white skin just below his navel as his arms lifted to block Deidara's blow...

Alright, Deidara decided. He was _not_ going to follow that thought.

The wall of the shower found itself the subject of rather intense glare from a certain blue-eyed blond. Deidara refused to be so pathetic as to start fantasizing about a partner he'd only gotten yesterday. He was better than that.

Deidara opened the door to the bathroom almost an hour later, significantly happier than he had been before his shower. He was wearing the dark blue pants the leader had given him, though they were slung dangerously low on his hips. They felt a little big on him- he'd have to ask the leader for a smaller pair when they were back at the base. His chest was bare, and his hair down. He was toweling off his hair as he walked out, humming lightly to himself.

Sasori was in almost the same position Deidara had left him in, an hour ago. Save now he was directing his slightly wide-eyes stare- at least, Deidara thought Sasori's eyes were wider than usual- at his puppet, and not at the bathroom door. It didn't look like he'd done anything with Hiruko.

For a second, Deidara felt a little guilty for snapping at Sasori. He really shouldn't have been so short with him- Sasori hadn't done anything, after all. Well, except be a little nosy at a bad time.

The guilt didn't last for more than a second, though. Deidara shrugged it off and grinned again, walking over to his bed. Sasori was a big boy- and a missing nin. It probably wasn't even that little run in that was bugging him in the first place. Why would his new partner snapping at him bug him? Sasori was cool and distant and everything that annoyed Deidara.

He threw his rather soiled clothing onto the bed and opened his pack again, searching for his toothbrush. He found it, along with his toothpaste, grabbed his hair brush, and headed back into the bathroom. He didn't close the door as he brushed his teeth, then opened one hand and began brushing the teeth of the hand on his left palm. He was half-way done when Sasori appeared at the door to the bathroom.

"Brat I'm going to-" And he cut himself off abruptly.

Deidara blinked and looked up, then over at Sasori. His red-haired partner was staring with wide eyes- Deidara was sure his eyes had opened a fraction of an inch, too, this time, at his hand. The hand that currently had a toothbrush in its mouth.

Oh. Deidara hadn't told Sasori about his hands, had he?

Oops.

Deidara waved weakly with his other hand, trying to get Sasori's attention off of his mouths. "Going where, yeah?"

"...the town market." Sasori finished lamely, finally tearing his eyes off of the mouth in Deidara's palms to look at Deidara's eyes.

"Hang on a second, yeah. I need to get some supplies too, yeah." Deidara stated, then finished brushing the mouth on his palm.

Sasori was staring at him all through the process, even as he finished brushing his other mouth and combed out his hair, pulling it back into the half-pony he usually wore it in. Deidara managed to hide the fact that the scrutiny was making him want to fidget, and also managed to stop himself from giving Sasori glanced out of the corner of his eye. What did Sasori think he was doing? He was just _standing_ there- he didn't look like he wanted to say anything, he was just staring.

Finally as Deidara finished all he needed to do, he turned to Sasori and glared at him. "What do you think you're doing, yeah? You're staring."

Sasori blinked and shrugged, like it was no big deal. "You said to wait. I'm waiting."

Deidara huffed, crossed his arms, and glared for a moment. Then he grabbed his brush, and stomped out of the bathroom, barely giving Sasori enough time to get out of the way. Damn puppet masters and their damn logic. Deidara did _not_ appreciate being stared at like he was the eighth wonder of the world. Regardless if the one staring had a perfectly good reason for it.

He pulled on the shirt that he'd gotten for his Akatsuki uniform, completely ignored the hairs standing up on the back of his neck, telling him that Sasori was still staring. Didn't the guy have some modesty? Or decency, even? Deidara was trying to get _dressed_.

He was buttoning up the Akatsuki coat when he finally turned around to face Sasori. His spats were on, and hooked under the shoes he'd gotten. His nails weren't painted, but he hadn't had the chance to take care of that yet. The hat was in one hand, ready to go on his head. He was pretty ready to head out.

There was just one more thing to take care of. He opened the bag he'd dropped on the floor earlier that morning, and took out a handful of the clay he'd collected. He'd used a special jutsu he himself had developed to keep it moist a pliable. He held the clay in his hand for a moment and forced a bit of chakra into it, molding the energy into the substance. The mouths in his hands could do a lot for the clay, like molding it into a specific shape in seconds, and forcing enough chakra into it to make it move, but some preparation was necessary beforehand. Well if Deidara wanted the sculpture to do something like _fly_, it needed more chakra than his mouths could manage.

So, with a little bit of clay with him, a kunai holster strapped to his leg, and two daggers hidden in either shoe, Deidara glared at Sasori to tell him that he was ready to go.

Sasori still looked rather confused as to why Deidara was mad. Deidara just glared at him until Sasori turned around and walked out of the door, shrugging.

XXXXXX

"What? What do you mean we can't stop for dango, yeah?"

"I said _no_. We're short on money as it is."

"How about some ramen, yeah?"

"No."

Deidara frowned and crossed his arms, his expression threatening on a pout. "But I'm hungry, Sasori-danna...yeah..."

Sasori gave Deidara a glance out of the corner of his eye at that comment. There was a very obvious whine threatening in Deidara's tone, and that seemed to worry Sasori. That almost made Deidara grin.

"Please?" Deidara stopped walking abruptly, and turned to Sasori.

Sasori stopped as well, and glared at Deidara. "No."

Deidara grabbed one of the overly-long sleeves of Sasori's coat with both hand, and proceeded to favor Sasori with a rather pathetic look. Sasori was looking a him like he was insane. Actually, several people around them stopped to do the same. Apparently, a grown man grabbing another grown man's hand and begging for something wasn't normal.

Deidara glared at the spectators until they decided that they had more pressing business elsewhere and decided to move on. Then he looked back at Sasori, smiling hopefully. "C'mon, Sasori-danna, yeah. Just one bowlful...?"

"First, this morning, you were just about biting my head off, then you were brushing the teeth on the palms of your _hands_ and questioning me for staring, and now you're begging me to get some dango?" Sasori paused to heave a sigh, and looked ahead of them, away from Deidara. "Why didn't that idiot of a leader give you to Kisame?"

Deidara blinked, stood straight again, and let go of Sasori's hand. "So is that a yes, yeah?"

Sasori favored him with a look so long and flat that Deidara was on the verge of fidgeting when Sasori crossed his arms and grumbled out a 'fine, but just a little.'

Deidara cheered, and looked around for that ramen stand he'd seen yesterday. He spotted it, among the brightly colored signs and restaurants, and ran over to it. Sasori followed less energetically.

The blond Iwa nin sat down on a stool as soon as he got there and waved the cook over. He ordered some, then briefly wondered if Sasori would want some too...he ordered some for Sasori, just in case. If Sasori didn't want it, Deidara would eat a second bowl without a problem. He hadn't eaten anything since those rice balls last night.

Sasori sat down besides Deidara just as the cook set two bowls of steaming ramen before them, along with two pairs of chopsticks. Deidara picked up his chopsticks, separated them, and began eating the ramen almost immediately, not caring anything for manners. It was good ramen, too. He found himself humming happily between mouthfuls, just for the sheer joy of good ramen.

When he finished his bowl Deidara put it down and sighed, wiping his mouth with the back of the sleeve of his Akatsuki coat. He looked over to Sasori, to find that he hadn't touched his bowl at all. Had Sasori eaten already...? But that was impossible, unless the puppet master had gotten up right after Deidara left for the river and had eaten then...but there had been no evidence of Sasori's meal in the room when he'd returned.

Deidara's brow furrowed. Was Sasori-danna sick?

"Sasori-danna, yeah..." Deidara pointed to his bowl. "Do you not like ramen...?"

Sasori looked at Deidara in surprise. The puppet master had been staring at something in the streets, though Deidara hadn't seen what he was staring at. "I..." Sasori paused, then he slowly shook his head. "I ate earlier...when you were gone."

Deidara thought about that for a moment. Well, Sasori was either telling the truth or covering something up. But, if there was something Sasori was hiding, and didn't want Deidara to know badly enough to lie about something like this, Deidara figured he was better off not knowing. So, he nodded and grinned, then grabbed Sasori's cooling bowl.

"I'll eat your's, then, yeah."

XXXXXXX

When Deidara walked back into their hotel room a few hours later, he immediately tensed. A kunai was in his hand before his brain could actually come to terms with what was wrong, and what had set his body on edge. Someone had been in the room, other than himself or Sasori. There were no chakra signatures in the room now, but there had been on at one point.

The room seemed the same as how they had left it- it was slightly dark, since no lights were on. Deidara's bed still had a bag of clay resting beside it, and a rumpled pair of pants and a shirt on top of it. His pack was half-opened, the handle of his hair brush sticking out of it. Sasori's bed was much neater than Deidara's, with only Hiruko's tail laying on top of it. The puppet itself was in one corner, laying motionless.

Sasori pushed past Deidara and looked around the room. He didn't seem to worried, which confused Deidara. He followed Sasori anyway, as he walked into the room.

"The messenger from the leader was here." Sasori stated as he made it to the center of the darkened room. He gestured at something lying on his bed, then picked it up and turned to Deidara.

He was holding a scroll. It was sealed with a seal that Deidara didn't recognize, but that Sasori obviously did. The red-haired puppet master broke the seal without a second thought and began reading it.

Deidara shifted uncomfortably and walked over to his bed, to make sure the messenger hadn't gotten into anything. He didn't care if it was a ninja on official business- he didn't like strangers getting near his stuff. He finally relaxed when he found all of his belongings untouched, and looked up at Sasori, who was rolling the scroll back up.

"Well, it seems we have our mission."

xxxxxx

Review? Please? For the poor author? -holds out empty coffee mug hopefully-


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer- see chapter 1.

Author's notes;

Another shortish chapter, sorry. But this chapter marks the end of the beginning story arc for this story- the story itself isn't over, but the next chapter is going to occur after a small time skip.

So, on to the chapter. Review please.

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Chapter 4

Deidara had been on a lot of missions in his relatively short life. He'd gotten onto the Iwa ANBU, so he'd had several difficult missions as well. Some of them had allowed him to use his art, some hadn't. Most had been on the boring side, rather than the exciting, life-or-death, hit-the-target-no-matter-what scenarios that all the little children got excited about when they were still genin. Of course, due to Deidara's choice fighting method, and his rather displeasing streak of disobedience, he'd often gotten stuck serving as the backup.

So, when he'd run from Iwa- resigning himself to being a missing nin, he'd expected a lot more excitement. Especially considering he'd just joined an entire organization of S-ranked criminals- the missions were supposed to be exciting, capturing the damsel in distress and holding her for ransom, fighting off the hero as he runs to her rescue. Art at its finest, antagonizing at its most interesting.

So, when Deidara got stuck up on the roof of some tower, watching Sasori talk to a bunch of men shrouded in dark cloaks, he found himself severely disappointed.

"Go stand on that tower," Sasori had said to Deidara, as they left the hotel for the mission. He had already gotten back into Hiruko. "And keep silent. If this all goes as planned, I won't need your help."

Deidara had listened and agreed to obey Sasori's orders for the pure fact that he was the newest member of this organization, and he didn't know how strong Sasori was. He also wasn't sure how much disobedience Sasori would take before he tried to kill his younger partner.

Thus, Deidara found himself laying flat on his stomach, chin resting in a palm, watching a small spider made of clay walk around in circles in front of him. Sasori had been down there talking to five men for at least an hour now, and he was getting bored. Very bored.

"Mmm...I wonder if Sasori-danna'd mind if I went to get some food, yeah..." Deidara murmured into his hand, staring down with half-lidded eyes at the group of men below him.

He perked up immediately when one man stepped forward, though. He was holding out a scroll, obviously meant for Sasori to take. Hiruko stepped forward and reached out his normal hand, but just before his fingertips reached the scroll, there was a hissing sound and the ground directly under Sasori opened. It looked almost like a trap door, in the middle of an alleyway. As odd as that was.

Deidara was on his feet in less than a second, and leaping down the side of the tower in even less time. He sent off the small spider he'd been playing with, grabbed two more handfuls of clay and created two small birds to follow in the spider's wake.

That was the last of his prepared clay, Deidara realized. Sasori had only given him a few minutes before leaving for the mission- he was only able to pound chakra into a few small handfuls of the clay he'd collected that morning. Well, he'd have to make those bombs he had just sent out count.

As Deidara landed lightly on his feet, doing any ninja proud with the landing after a three-story fall, the bombs he'd sent out landed on the targets he'd pointed out for them. Each bird's explosion was large enough to kill two men, so the four men that had been standing around the fifth, who was holding the scroll, were dead before they realized what had hit them.

A grin was on Deidara's face as he looked at the man holding the scroll, his hands still in the seal required for the detonation of his clay dolls. The spider had latched itself around the man's leg, and he was staring at it in fear.

"Don't move, yeah. Or you're dead." Deidara half-hissed, half-chuckled. The man didn't look like he was about to disobey.

Deidara stood from the crouch he'd landed in, and looked over to where the trap door had opened. He stepped over to it and looked down the shaft, but wasn't able to see the bottom, though the light was fading, so he wasn't very surprised. But what was he supposed to do? Go down there and get him?

"_Shit_." Deidara murmured to himself, after moving around to try and see if he could get any glimpse at all of the fallen Hiruko. Or Sasori.

He crossed his arms in ill temper, looked up to the last man, still holding that damn scroll, and a little sadistic smirk twisted his pale lips. He doubted Sasori would be killed by a fall, or by whatever was at the bottom of the fall, but this guy was going to pay for putting Deidara through the trouble of waiting through this entire meeting, then having to go down a shaft and fish out his grumpy ass of a partner. A shaft that was probably older than the town itself, and the town had nasty enough things living in the dark corners. Or growing. But sometimes, in alleys that were old enough, you couldn't be too sure that fungus _wasn't_ going to jump up and eat you alive. So, who _knew_ what was going to be down _there_.

Deidara walked calmly over to the man, and held out a hand for the scroll. He made sure the mouth in the palm of that hand was grinning at the man, just to creep him out. People seemed to be easily frightened by his mouths for some reason or another...

"Alright, yeah. Give me the scroll and I'll let you live." Deidara stated.

The man nodded compulsively and handed Deidara the scroll, staring in awed fear at the mouth in the hand. He was terrified, and it kind of amused Deidara. This man was no fighter, and most definitely had no training in the ninja arts. He was just a civilian, and it showed.

Deidara took the scroll and slipped it into his now empty clay bag, around his leg. The man started to run as soon as he had given the scroll, but the spider was still around his leg. With an evil little grin Deidara formed the hand seal necessary and detonated the small spider. The man died with no more than a cry of surprise.

There was a prickle in between his shoulder blades, and the hair on the back of his neck suddenly stood on end. Deidara realized there was someone standing behind him before he turned around, but he didn't get the chance to defend himself. There was the sound of a solid body falling to the ground, and Deidara was staring down at his would-be attacker, who was now sporting several kunai in the back.

He looked up from the dead man to see Sasori standing there, a kunai in his hand. He wasn't in Hiruko, and looked rather peeved. Well, at least Deidara _thought _he looked angry.

Deidara blinked and pointed at Sasori, who looked at him with that same almost-bored expression. The 'almost,' because he was definitely annoyed. "You didn't fall, yeah?"

Sasori blinked and glared at him flatly. Deidara really wasn't sure how that was possible, but Sasori pulled it off anyway. "Hiruko did. I jumped out of him."

Deidara made a 'huh' and crossed his arms nodding. After a minute of Sasori still staring at him flatly, it occurred to Deidara that he might want the scroll. He reached into his clay pouch and pulled out the scroll, handing it to Sasori. Sasori took it rather forcefully, and put it somewhere up his sleeve- Deidara wasn't sure he wanted to know where.

The Iwa nin crossed his arms and stared as Sasori walked over to the hole in the ground, rather impatient. He didn't want to wait for Sasori to climb all the way down there and get back up again- he'd been waiting long enough for those damn negotiations, which turned out to not even be necessary. After a minute of standing behind a silent Sasori, who was looking down into the darkness of the trap door, Deidara decided to comment.

"If you'd given me time to make my clay, I'd be able to just make a doll to go down and get it, yeah." Deidara stated, not very pleasantly. Well, it was true. A few clay birds could fly down there and be able to fly Hiruko out again, without much effort.

Sasori glanced over his shoulder at Deidara, with that calm, bored, unperturbed look still on his face. Deidara would someday be able to read that look, he swore it. But for now, it left him guessing as Sasori looked back to the hole.

"That won't be necessary." Sasori stated, and extended a hand over the hole.

A faint glow of chakra started up around his hand, concentrated at his fingers. The glow extended itself into faint lines, from each of his fingertips, and slowly grew down into the hole. They were chakra strings, Deidara realized. He hadn't seen many ninja that could do them- only puppet masters ever learned the technique, really, and Deidara had only seen one of those once or twice.

Sasori sat in the same position for a few minutes, and Deidara had to assume he was searching for Hiruko with the chakra strings. Deidara took to opportunity to glance out of the corner of his eye, and watch Sasori.

Sasori was watching the hole before him, as if he could see the bottom and exactly where his chakra was. His mouth was turned down into a faint frown of concentration, and his eyebrows were tilted just slightly, accentuating the frown. The strong jaw was set, though it didn't look like he was tense.

Deidara sighed and looked back to the trap hole and pursed his lips, resisting the urge to grumble to himself. Why did he have to get stuck with such a serious and boring partner? Sure, he'd be fun to bug, but he was good looking and just begging to be...well...

He wouldn't follow that thought. Sasori was good looking, but an ass. That was the problem. Well, it was going to be, Deidara knew it. And all because of that damn ironic quirk in Deidara's nature that stated 'I will not turn straight'.

There was a movement from Sasori's hand, and Deidara glanced up from his thoughts. The puppet master had a little grin on his face now, one of achievement. Deidara wasn't sure if he liked it. It made Sasori look colder than he did with just that bored look on his face.

Sasori stood, and pulled back on his hand that was connected to the chakra strings. There was the distant sound of wood scraping on stone, and seconds later Hiruko came shooting out of the hole. Sasori used the chakra strings to pull it back a bit from the edge of the hole then disconnected from him.

Both partners were silent as Sasori walked foreward and examined Hiruko quickly, checking its main joints expertly. Deidara assumed the puppet was still good to go, since Sasori opened up the small hatch in Hiruko's back and climbed in, smoothing the larger Akatsuki cloak that the puppet wore after him, hiding the opening. The effect was just what had fooled Deidara into thinking Hiruko was the real Sasori- and that was an testment to Sasori's skills. If he could make a puppet move like a living thing for days on end, than he had to be talented. Of course, to be considered an s-rank ninja he had to be pretty damn talented anyways.

Finally, after waiting all of two seconds for Sasori to get himself situated in Hiruko again, Deidara crossed his arms and put on what he himself termed his 'bitchy face'.

"So, yeah? Can we get _going_ now?"

Sasori was silent for a moment, before he turned Hiruko's head to face him, and nodded. "Yes, we can get moving. We'll sleep tonight at the hotel, then head back to the base tomorrow morning."

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An hour or so later, Deidara was sitting on his bed back at the hotel room, eating dango happily. A cup of warm tea sat on the table beside his bed, and his bag of clay was leaning up against his thigh. He'd enriched it with chakra, so he was fully armed again, and he'd convinced Sasori to stop and get food on the way back, from a shop that had been open late, thus the dango. All in all, he was pretty happy. It was a good pay off for a boring mission.

Sasori was sitting on his bed, out of Hiruko again, working on the still-damaged tail. And a few knee joints. Well, that was all Deidara had been able to decipher of Sasori's half-mumbled parts explanation when Deidara had asked about the damage earlier, out of curiosity.

But Hiruko wasn't foremost on Deidara's mind at the moment. Sasori's eating habits were. He was positive that Sasori hadn't eaten yet today, considering he'd been with Sasori for the most of it. Save this morning, in which Sasori had claimed he'd eaten. But even if he'd had a particularly large breakfast, that shouldn't be enough to carry him all day.

So what was wrong with Sasori?

Deidara was at a loss for an explanation. Sasori was deflecting all Deidara's attempts at figuring it out with vague excuses, like he'd eaten already, or he wasn't hungry. Deidara wasn't sure if he should be miffed at being kept from some secret, or if he should be worried that Sasori was anorexic or something.

That didn't seem right for some reason. Yes, Deidara decided. 'Sasori' and 'anorexic' shouldn't be in the same sentence. Well, maybe if the puppet master hid it really well...but he didn't _look_ anorexic. He looked pretty healthy, actually. Like he ate normally. Which Deidara was convinced he didn't.

Deidara sighed and finished off his dango, drinking the last of his tea to wash it down. Where was all this musing getting him, hmm? Nowhere, that's where. Sasori was a big s-ranked missing nin. He could handle his own hunger and health and life. Deidara was just a business partner. He didn't need to worry about someone he'd just met.

Stretching rather widely, Deidara laid back on his bed with a happy 'oof', making Sasori glance at him strangely. Deidara ignored him and decided it was about time to sleep. And sleep in the next day, considering he'd gotten up so early that morning to get that damn clay.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer (which I keep forgetting to do): I don't own.

A short one again...I'm starting to feel guilty about posting so short...

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Chapter 5

It was late fall, the beginning of winter, and almost six months since Deidara joined Akatsuki, a notorious group of S-ranked criminals. That meant six months since the rest of the members had seen a single moment of peace and solitude...and didn't have to worry about personal belongings being damaged severely by explosives.

Today was particularly boring for Deidara. Something big was going to happen soon, according to Sasori, and that was why they hadn't had a mission in a week. And Deidara didn't mind not having a mission- that meant he got to sleep in his own bed, after all. The only problem was that the base was so _boring_. None of the other members were social in the least except Hidan and Kakuzu, and Kisame if he was in a good mood. But none of them were around today. Kisame was supposed to be getting back this afternoon, though. At least that gave him something to do later.

Deidara sighed and looked down at the formless blob of clay sitting in front of him on his bed. The room, which had somehow become 'his' in the past three months- wasn't really decorated- none of the Akatsuki members' rooms were. He'd spread his sparse belongings over the wardrobe, desk, and chair the leader had provided; extra clothes were in the wardrobe, a picture sat in its frame on top of it, an old sculpture was acting as a paperweight on his desk, a report he was supposed to turn in to the leader beside it. There were also two large barrels of clay in the corner. It would have looked like a normal room, if that was all that was in it. But covering almost every wall- and every piece of furniture were scorch marks. They were faded from Deidara trying to clean them off, but the damage was done. It was obvious he played with his 'art' a little too much.

The blond Iwa nin picked up the blob of clay in his right hand and opened the mouth on his palm, ignoring the sensation of cold clay falling onto his tongue. He'd long ago learned to disregard the flavor of clay as well as its feel, which was not appetizing in the least.

He chewed on it thoughtfully for a minute, letting his chin rest in the palm of his other hand, mouth fully closed. Finally, when he knew the clay had enough chakra, he spit it back out, and closed his fist around it. He grinned as the clay just about molded itself, thanks to his chakra, and a small bird wiggled its way out from between his fingers. He didn't bother enlarging it- he just watched, bored, as it spread its wings and flapped around the room aimlessly.

Deidara sighed, finally, and lay back on his bed, folding his hands behind his head. He would have preferred to be bugging Sasori, but his partner hadn't seemed in a good mood earlier that day. Actually, it was more than 'not a good mood'; it was more like a completely foul mood, which was more emotion than Deidara was used to seeing out of the man. That alone said a lot. For a good portion of the morning Deidara fretted over Sasori, trying to understand what was wrong. The most Deidara had come up with was that it was about the rumored upcoming mission.

The upcoming mission was what they were going to be leaving for sometime soon, as far as he knew. Whatever was happening today wouldn't last long, that much he did know, and after it was over Sasori and Deidara were to go and take care of the orders the leader had given them last night. It didn't seem too hard or too out of the ordinary, which was why Deidara was confused as to what Sasori was upset about. There was a crime lord somewhere off in Wind country- Deidara had forgotten the name of the town, but it was somewhere near Suna- and this crime lord had made a deal a long time ago with the leader of the Akatsuki. The lord paid money to the Akatsuki, and if the crime lord's syndicate ever ran into trouble they couldn't handle, the Akatsuki would come and help them out. The Akatsuki had a lot of deals like that- having an organization of s-ranked geniuses backing you was pretty reassuring. But the man had run into some trouble, apparently, so Deidara and Sasori were to go and report to him.

It didn't sound like it was going to be particularly hard, really. And there was nothing strange about it, besides having to follow the orders of some civilian who sold drugs. So why would Sasori be in such a bad mood? Deidara was at a loss to explain it.

Maybe Sasori was from Suna? Going back to his hometown could put him on edge, right? Deidara wouldn't be in the best of moods if he found out that they had to travel to Iwa the next day, either. And even though they weren't really going to Suna, the town they _were_ going to was pretty damn close.

He sighed thoughtfully. Well, maybe that was it. Sasori was from Suna. That would make sense, considering Suna had all the good puppet masters. Like the legendary Chiyo. Even Deidara had heard about her; rumors of the puppet master that could control one puppet with each finger, and had taken down an entire fortress with her techniques reached even Iwa. There were also tales told that she had bound the Shukaku, the one tailed beast, inside of the Kazekage's youngest child, but Deidara wasn't sure if he believed the rumors. Of course... then again, he was going to have to figure that one out, because the leader had assigned him to the Shukaku, hadn't he?

There was a brisk knock at his door. Deidara sat up in surprise, not expecting anyone to come and find him. The door opened, and Deidara found himself staring at Sasori's flat gaze.

"Sasori-danna, yeah! What's up?" Deidara chirped, rather happy to see Sasori. He couldn't be too mad if he was coming to find his partner, right?

Sasori was silent for a moment, as if having trouble remembering why he'd come in the first place. But Sasori always took his time when answering questions, ignoring the awkward silences his pauses created as if they weren't there. He finally moved, gesturing for Deidara to follow him.

"Come on brat, the leader's calling all of us down to the cave." Sasori left the door open as he turned and began walking down the hall.

Deidara jumped up happily, glad to have something to do, finally, and followed Sasori. The clay bird that had been flapping around his room settled on his shoulder, at Deidara's silent command. He may have played with his art more than the rest of the Akatsuki would have liked, but he never wasted it.

Deidara fell a bit behind Sasori in the harshly bright hall, like he always did when Sasori was walking outside of Hiruko. His smile settled into a smirk as he let his eyes rest on his partner, his imagination supplying what the Akatsuki cloak hid so well. Really, what had the leader been thinking, making the Akatsuki uniform such a baggy cloak? It should be something at least with a waist, so Deidara could see Sasori's a-

The image of some of the other Akatsuki members, like Zetsu the plant man, running around in tight pants flashed through Deidara's mind.

Sasori looked over his shoulder curiously as Deidara suddenly choked and made some very odd noises, somewhere between and cry of dismay and a giggle, but Deidara waved it off and set himself to getting his breathing back to normal. Sasori shrugged and looked ahead again, probably throwing the incident into the list with all the other strange things Deidara did that Sasori didn't even try to understand.

They made it into the cavern that served as a meeting place without much further incident. They used another entrance into the cave- there were several, as Deidara had learned over the months, all hidden just as well as the sliding door he'd destroyed on his first day in the Akatsuki. And all were just as stubborn as the first one- Deidara swore, they _refused_ to open for him, and only him. Sasori had no trouble with them, and as far as Deidara knew, none of the other members had issues either. The doors just hated him. So he hated the doors. And the ensuing glaring contests with said doors had earned him quite a few strange looks from his fellow Akatsuki.

As they entered the cavern Deidara thought it was empty at first. None of the other members were there, except for the leader's flickering image in the center. Then Deidara realized that wasn't the case- Kisame was standing beside the leader, looking a bit worn, and there was a boy standing before the two of them. He couldn't make the boy out from where he was standing, but he was pretty sure the kid wasn't wearing an Akatsuki coat.

Slowly, as Sasori and Deidara made their way into the cave, images of the other members that weren't at the base flickered into existence. It was an illusionary jutsu that the leader had taught them all to use- that way the members that weren't at the base wouldn't miss out on any important meetings. And the Akatsuki were almost never all at the base at the same time.

Deidara stopped walking when Sasori did, in perfect sync with his partner. They'd put some effort into getting better at teamwork over the past months, considering Sasori didn't want his puppets getting damaged by Deidara's bombs. So, after all that work, Deidara was pretty familiar with the way Sasori moved. That and Deidara would walk behind Sasori whenever he got the chance, so he was pretty good at stopping before he hit into his partner.

They were still in the shadows, though Deidara was pretty sure everyone knew they were there. The kid- he actually looked to be around the same age as Deidara himself- tensed as he sensed someone standing behind him. He had some survival instincts, then. That was good in a ninja. It often kept them from getting killed.

"Alright." The Leader began, causing all eyes to turn to him. "This is Uchiha Itachi, our newest member. He'll be partnered with Kisame."

The kid turned, to face the rest of the Akatsuki, and scanned them with cold eyes. Deidara's eyes widened- the kid was pretty good looking.

He was pale, paler than anyone Deidara had ever seen. Itachi had jet-black hair tied at the nape of his neck, allowing nothing but some locks of bangs free to frame his Konoha headband. There were dark circles under the kid's eyes, making him look tired. He was dressed in an ANBU outfit- Konoha, probably, considering that was on his headband.

Leader waved his hand, a dismissing gesture. "Alright, you may go. Kisame, take Itachi to his room. Sasori, Deidara, I want to see you two."

Deidara and Sasori passed Kisame and his new partner as they began walking, and Deidara took the chance to eye Itachi. Nice ass on that one. Deidara grinned to himself as they neared where the Leader was standing. Finally more eye candy besides Sasori in the Akatsuki. Hidan was pretty good looking, too, but Deidara didn't see him enough.

The Leader began talking as soon as Deidara and Sasori were close enough to hear him clearly. "You two are to leave now. I want you both back in a week- don't take any longer than that."

Sasori nodded and turned, gesturing for Deidara to follow him. They were heading right for the door, without even stopping in their rooms. He was intensely glad he'd grabbed his clay bag before leaving, but something occurred to him- where was Hiruko?

"Sasori-danna?" Deidara said as he skipped a few steps to come up level with Sasori. They were just walking into the sunlight as Deidara continued. "Why aren't you in Hiruko?" Sasori _never_ left the base without Hiruko.

Sasori looked a little surprised at the question, and turned his head to look at Deidara. "It needs some work. Until I finish, I'll be traveling without it."

The journey to the town took a day for the two Akatsuki, a very boring day in Deidara's opinion. It was quiet, and they didn't see anyone on the well-traveled roads when they crossed them, which was strange. Usually there were travelers, at least a caravan or two coming into or leaving from the larger towns. Of course, Deidara just thought the general lack of action was depressing. They were in the middle of a war-torn ninja-ridden continent, for the Kage's sake! Where were all the _ninja_? Sasori and Deidara were both missing nin, and in all five village's bingo books, as far as Deidara knew. So, couldn't they expect at least a _little_ attention?

"...Deidara, you're moping again."

Well, that had Deidara sputtering. He and Sasori had decided to walk the last mile to the town on a road winding through a small canyon. There were no trees this close to the desert, so they really didn't have a choice.

Sasori was looking over his shoulder at Deidara, giving him a 'You're too quiet, and it's annoying me' look.

"I am _not_ moping, yeah. I'm just _bored_." Deidara gestured vaguely, to the deserted canyon around them. This was _exactly_ why he didn't like Wind Country. It was way too barren, and there weren't even rabid forest-creatures to come out of nowhere and give them something to do. Well, there was the occasional desert dweller, but those were few and far between.

"Of course you're bored." Sasori muttered, and Deidara gave him a good healthy glare in the back. "You're always bored on journeys..."

"Am not, yeah!" Deidara grumbled, crossing his arms stubbornly. Most of the time he found _something_ to do.

Sasori didn't give him an answer, though Deidara really hadn't been expecting one. Sasori was like that, most of the time. He only said something if he had something to say- he wouldn't bother with pointless banter or conversation for the sake of filling up silences. Deidara didn't mind that too much- if he got sick of the silence, he could always start talking. Though Sasori usually never acknowledged him, he knew Sasori was listening to him. It was kind of endearing, in a twisted way.

The Iwa nin was about to start talking again, just for the purpose of filling the silence, when he noticed a few shapes up ahead of them. It looked like two, no, three men, standing in a line, as if to block off the entrance to the town. As they approached, Deidara could make out finer details. They were all in their mid-thirties, and looked rough. Heavily muscled, too. The typical brute of some mastermind. Deidara sighed, bored of the stereotype. Now, if they ran into some really good looking brutes, then he'd be surprised. Really, was it that hard to find someone handsome?

They weren't really threatening, though. None of them had advanced on the partners, and none held weapons in obvious view, which further disappointed Deidara. He wasn't even going to get a good fight, then.

"You're Lord Hiroshi's men?" Sasori asked, surprising Deidara. Who was Hiroshi...?

When one of the men nodded, it clicked in Deidara's mind. Hiroshi was the guy they were going to work for- that was where he'd heard the name before. That crime lord guy. But if Sasori had called him lord out in the open, he must have been some kind of official, not just a crime lord. That meant the man had land, which probably meant that the Akatsuki members weren't going to have to stay in a hotel. That was pleasing, at least. Most hotels really weren't anything special.

The man in the middle, the one who'd nodded, gestured for Sasori and Deidara to follow as they began walking back to the town. "Lord Hiroshi's been expecting you two."

Deidara rolled his eyes. Well, no shit.

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Review? Please?


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own it. Wish I did, though.

A/N: Alrighty, then. This is where the whole fic starts getting good. The next chapter I'm expecting to be a doozy, then the chapter after that I already have written, so they should be coming pretty fast.

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Chapter 6

Hiroshi's mansion was much too flamboyant for anyone's taste, except maybe Hiroshi's. But, Deidara was of the opinion that not even Hiroshi liked his house- he just kept all the gold-embroidered pots and silk-woven tapestries for the sake of showing off his ill-gotten wealth. And indeed, the fact that Hiroshi was a crime lord as well as a feudal lord was obvious. The place _smelled_ like drugs, blood, and the oil used on swords. The men leading Deidara and Sasori deeper into the base had more weapons than any soldier should have to carry, and had the kind of eyes Deidara would expect to find only on a ninja. Paranoid, twitchy, like they expected an attack from each of the shadows they passed. Deidara had been holding himself back with an admirable effort from laughing at them for their paranoia. They were worse then that weathered old Jounin back at Iwa!

But Deidara had to admit that he couldn't really blame them, even if they were funny. He didn't like the house. Hiroshi had made no attempt at making it seem inviting- for all the wealth displayed on the walls, they were cold and foreboding. The walls glittered, and the room sparkled, but there was no light, really. Just glimmers and shines from hard metal. It was worse then the Akatsuki base- it felt like a ghost house, something from a horror tale. Deidara wasn't one to be frightened so easily, though. He just kept his eyes open, as well as his instincts. He was on edge- nothing would get the best of him.

Sasori was a solid presence at his side, and even for the tough front Deidara was giving, he was thankful for that. Never in his life had Deidara known someone he could trust. All the ninja he'd worked with back in Iwa cared about nothing but the mission and their own paycheck. Deidara hadn't cared for them, and they hadn't cared for Deidara. So having someone that he knew would fight with him was new. Sasori would fight beside him, and would never hurt him on purpose. Even for all the threats Sasori threw at him when annoyed, and for all the cold exterior, Sasori would never hurt him.

And Deidara would never hurt Sasori. Ever since that first explosion that had caught Hiruko's tail, Deidara had been extra careful to not set off any of his bombs near enough to Sasori to hurt him. They'd developed a teamwork that was almost flawless, Deidara serving as long range and Sasori as short. Sasori knew when to pull back to let Deidara attack, and Deidara knew when to stop so Sasori could move in. That meant Deidara had to interrupt his art for Sasori, but somehow he found himself not caring. Stopping his art momentarily to keep Sasori safe was worth it.

Thus they'd both found a friendship growing between them, without either's consent. It was a strange feeling, but Deidara didn't mind it. He'd never had a true friend before.

After five minutes of walking down freezing hallways, they stopped at a flamboyant door. One of the men knocked on the door, the sharp sound harshly breaking the silence that penetrated the halls. The silence settled back down around them as they waited for an answer. Deidara was about to make some comment about the boss not being home, when there finally came a 'come in'. Well, he took his time, didn't he? He probably wasn't even doing anything- he'd just made them wait for the sake of laughing at them. Or making himself feel important or something.

The man who had knocked opened the door and allowed Sasori and Deidara to walk inside. The office on the other side was, surprisingly, very modest. It was on the small side, with the desk positioned directly in front of the door. It was some kind of dark wood, probably expensive, but at least it had some taste. There were a few piles of paper on the desk, and a book sitting neglected on the corner. Behind the desk, a little to the right, was a file cabinet. A plant sat in the opposite corner of the file cabinet, a couch along that wall. Two chairs were set out in front of the desk. The walls and floor were all hardwood, a creating an old-fashioned effect, but it looked quite nice. There were no pictures on the wall, or windows.

After examining the room, Deidara's eyes finally fell onto the man sitting behind the desk, leaning back in it lazily. He assumed it was Hiroshi, though Deidara hadn't been expecting Hiroshi to look like _that_. He'd been expecting a fat old man, who counted his money fifty times a day and stuffed his face with rare delicacies. The man staring back at Deidara and Sasori with cool dark eyes was far from that image. Well, it just went to show him- not all crime lords looked like idiots.

Hiroshi was surprisingly good looking, in an effeminate kind of way. Kind of like how Sasori was- not handsome, really. More pretty, than anything. Silver hair fell in spiked locks around Hiroshi's cool face, skin almost as pale as Sasori's. And Deidara could tell, right there, that the cool smirk gracing Hiroshi's lips was going to get annoying. Really annoying.

Sasori sat down in one of the chairs as soon as they were close enough to the desk, obviously intent on getting this over with as soon as he could. Deidara eyed the chair distrustingly first, then sat down on it. He eyed Hiroshi's shirt as he sat, though, silently admiring it. It was the most comfortable-looking formal shirt Deidara had ever seen.

"Well, I'm glad to see the Akatsuki keep their word." Hiroshi began, folding his hands on his desk, the look on his face perfectly friendly. This guy was good.

Sasori grunted, his answer to just about any comment he didn't particularly care about, as Deidara had learned on many an occasion. "What do you need?"

Hiroshi rapidly changed gears, so flawlessly that Deidara barely caught the frown on the man's face. He didn't like this guy- he was too hard to read. Probably experience with dealing with too many people. Like a politician. "An old rival has himself a group of ninja to fight for him. I'd kill them off without help, but they're a couple of missing nins from Mist." He gestured vaguely. "I can't give you much on what they can do, but I do know where they are right now. I want you to kill off the ninja and capture my enemy's daughter, if you can. A bargaining chip, you see."

Sasori nodded. Deidara didn't bother commenting. He was never good with these kinds of interactions anyway. He got frustrated too easily when he couldn't read someone, or when he knew he'd been played for the fool. "I assume your men will guide us there...?" Sasori asked, standing up again.

Hiroshi nodded and gestured for the man that had knocked on the door earlier. The man stepped up, and nodded to the two Akatsuki. He then walked out the door, and Sasori followed. Deidara gave one last suspicious glanced at Hiroshi, who was smiling innocently, and followed Sasori. That meeting had gone surprisingly painlessly, and Deidara wanted to know why. Maybe the fight was going to be a hard one. If it was hard, then having a difficult meeting beforehand would have just been unfair.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

The warehouse of a building that housed Hiroshi's 'enemy' was one of the most obviously protected buildings Deidara had seen. There were so many samurai and hired mercenaries running around that Deidara couldn't hear if there were ninja in the shadows or not. He wasn't picking up that prickling feeling that he was being watched, but that also may have been the fault of all that _noise_. Armor was clanking as guards moved down the halls, the sharp screech of weapons being sharpened on whetstones echoed off the walls. There were shouts of drunken men, probably a party, or guards off-duty. No one was even _trying_ to keep the place quiet, that much was obvious. But that may have been to help out the ninja, if they were on watch. It was much easier to keep hidden when one had cover- both visually and auditable-wise.

That was a strange bet to make, though. The sound also gave Sasori and Deidara more cover. These people were either incredibly arrogant or incredibly stupid.

Deidara shifted on the beam he was crouched on, to try and spot Sasori. He was high up off the ground, on one of the rafters near the roof, and looking down at the large main room of the warehouse. A portion of the building had been sectioned off into rooms, probably living quarters, and that was where Sasori was looking. They were locating the daughter before attacking- it always helped to have the target before chaos broke out.

The room Sasori had left him in was mostly filled with boxes, like a warehouse should be. The lighting was poor, so Deidara wasn't sure what the labels on them said, but he had the feeling he didn't want to know. Probably some kind of drugs, if he had to guess.

He'd been waiting for a while; what was taking Sasori so long was beyond him, so Deidara had decided to amuse himself while he waited. There was a guard directly below him that was talking to himself, probably to keep himself awake. He was talking about some kind of list, and Deidara was having trouble not chuckling to himself. The man had a girlfriend or the like, and in between listing items, he'd comment on how much she was going to kill him if he forgot anything. There was another man- older and rather stout, sitting against some boxes, probably taking a break. He was reading a rather vividly-colored book- titled 'Icha Icha Paradise'. Or at least, that's what Deidara thought it said. He'd seen the book in stores before- but he'd never read them. He'd heard they were good, though. And a great deal less than innocent.

The door to the sectioned off area opened, and Deidara's eyes darted to the entryway. A woman stepped through, but she was dressed like the guards were. Not the target, then. According to Hiroshi's men, she wasn't a fighter. Blond, blue-eyed, pretty. Shouldn't be too hard to pick out. The man giving the description been about to give her freaking personal habits and _measurements_, which neither Deidara nor Sasori had wanted to hear, so the man had thankfully stopped. Deidara couldn't help but pity the girl, if that kind of information was readily known among the group that was about to hold her prisoner. But he spared her no more than a passing thought. She was the target, along with the hired ninja, after all.

There was a flicker of a shadow behind the woman as she walked out, and closed the door behind her. Deidara barely noticed it- but because he did see it, he wasn't surprised when Sasori appeared on the beam beside him. He was carrying a girl under one arm, unconscious. She also fit the 'voluptuous, blond haired, blue-eyed' description they'd gotten. She was wearing an almost skin-tight short red dress- and by short, it was barely covering her ass. The only reason it wasn't riding up on her in her current half-upsidedown position was by virtue of how tight the cloth hugged her thighs. Deidara was, for once, glad that a female was wearing tight clothing in his presence. Sasori didn't look too happy about having to carry her, either, which made Deidara happy. He didn't stop to think about why.

The partners locked gazes, and Sasori tilted his head down towards the floor below them. Sasori was giving Deidara the go-ahead to make some noise and attract the attention of the ninja they were to get rid of.

Deidara pulled back the hem of his Akatsuki coat gladly, opening the pouch at his side with practiced ease. He removed a sculpture he'd made before-hand; a special mixture of clay that took him quite a while to perfect. He called it "C", and it made more of a boom than his normal clay did, with less of it necessary to make the explosion. He'd sculpted it into a bird, with its wings outstretched in mid-flight.

He paused a moment and debated where to set it off. There wasn't much of it- he still wasn't really good at making it- and he'd made the clay more for flashy purposes than anything. It wouldn't make a damaging explosion, but it would catch some attention, that was for sure. He decided to throw it at the door to the area sectioned off as a house. So, with a devilish grin, Deidara chucked the small clay bird at the door, and detonated it with a hand seal just as it hit.

The explosion pleased Deidara, as did the havoc it caused. A fire started where the explosion had knocked out the wall, and the guards that had previously been goofing off or sleeping jumped to attention, hurrying towards the fire to put it out. The party going on had turned from happy shouts to screams and yells, and confusion settled upon the warehouse. It took a few moments, but two men in tattered cloaks landed before the fire, using the body flicker jutsu. Deidara didn't know if there were more than just the two, but he did know the men were the first of his targets.

Deidara leapt down from the beam, leaving Sasori to guard the girl. He formed several hand seals on the way down, and three kage bunshin landed with him as he touched down onto the warehouse floor. The bunshin spread out around the two targets without Deidara having to do anything to tell them to. The two targets didn't look fazed, reassuring Deidara that these two were indeed missing nin.

The ninja on the left leapt towards him, but the right on stayed where he was. It made sense because of the difference in their body structure; the one barreling towards him was muscled and pulling out metal-plated nunchaku, the one left behind was smaller and forming hand seals furiously. Deidara leapt back and away from the nunchaku ninja while ordering one of his clones back to help him with a flicker of chakra. Once he was out of immediate bodily harm Deidara glanced up to make sure his two other clones were attacking the other ninja. He was mildly pleased with what he saw- both of his clones were heading for the smaller ninja with explosive clay in their hands. The ninja hadn't tried to evade them yet- he must not have realized the clay could explode.

Deidara brought his attention back to the ninja coming towards him, and was barely able to get a kunai out to deflect the metal bar heading towards his head. The larger ninja recovered gracefully, surprising Deidara a little bit. The chain weapon snaked back and around him and came up in the man's other hand. Deidara dodged to the right, missing the strike aimed at his chest. Peripherally he acknowledged the sound of water hitting the ground- instantly he knew the other ninja his clones had been attacking was a water cone. That meant he didn't know where the second enemy was; not a good thing.

The clay his other two clones were holding exploded, destroying them in the process. The chakra returned to him, bringing to him the knowledge the clones had gained, but they hadn't seen where the second nin had gone. Damn.

By the larger ninja's third strike, Deidara's last clone had reached them. Deidara didn't waste any time waiting for an opportune moment- he just sent the clone at the ninja, tackling the man to the side and away from the real Deidara. That gave him the chance to jump away from the nunchaku man and look around for the second, and probably more dangerous, ninja.

Going off a sudden hunch, Deidara spun on the ball of his foot to face the direction Sasori and the target were in. Except...he wasn't seeing the back wall of the warehouse. He was seeing two dragon-like forms made of water rocketing straight towards him. Behind the jutsu heading at him, Deidara could see the other ninja, hanging on the wall with chakra and grinning. But Deidara's concern wasn't with the ninja, now he had to save his own skin- and judging by the prickle at the back of his neck, the other nunchaku ninja was coming back at him. Either his kage bunshin had been defeated, or the ninja had evaded it.

Deidara didn't have the time to evade both the ninja and the jutsu, he realized. He'd have to take one blow or the other. So, deciding fast, Deidara turned again, putting his back to the jutsu. He threw several clay dolls at the ninja to get him to back off and dismissed his useless bunshin in one move, then braced himself to get hit by the water on his back. It never came, though. Eyes wide, Deidara spun yet again to find a tall dark shape between him and where the jutsu had come from. Part of it was now destroyed, eaten away at by the water. There was a faint glow around it- where those chakra lines? His eyes shot up to the beam he'd been hiding on earlier, to see Sasori standing on the edge of it, hand extended to control the puppet that had protected Deidara. With an expansive gesture Sasori moved the puppet to deal with the nunchaku ninja, who had just barely avoided the exploding clay.

Deidara found a smile curving his lips as he leapt off towards the ninja that had used the jutsu. He should have been expecting that one, but he supposed that he'd thought Sasori would stay with the target. They were partners, though. Sasori was always at his back with his puppets, and Deidara was always at Sasori's. It was a bit too sentimental for Deidara's tastes, though, putting it like that. Even if it was true. Deidara was not touchy-feely- he was a mass murdering missing ninja. He may have been more in-tune with his own emotions and be able to read the emotions of those around him more so than others, but that did _not _make him touchy-feely. He still had some dignity.

But this was not the time to be thinking about this. The ninja that had cast the jutsu had realized by then that Deidara was heading towards him. He'd begun to run along the wall, towards the walled-off area. Deidara gave chase, forming a clay bird in each hand. He had just brought them to life and thrown them towards the fleeing ninja when he heard a deep rumbling groan from behind him. It was followed by the screeching grind of stone against stone. Alarmed, Deidara turned to where the sound had come from- the direction of Sasori and the target.

Deidara turned just in time to see Sasori impaled with a spear of rock. The puppet master's eyes were wide, his mouth slightly open in surprise. The chakra strings detached from his fingers, the puppet on the ground below him falling lifeless. The spear retracted out of his upper abdomen, and Sasori fell forward, off the beam, landing onto the stone floor with a thud. There was a third ninja standing on the beam, the rock spear in hand. He had the target draped over one shoulder.

Deidara wasn't keeping up with his mind. He'd been trained as a ninja- facts before emotions, always. He'd already formulated several courses of action to send all three of the ninja to the afterlife- very painfully- when he realized what he was doing. Sasori still hadn't moved from where he'd fallen. Of course he hadn't- he'd just been impaled through the stomach. He wasn't going to survive that. _No one_ could survive that. But Sasori couldn't be dead, Deidara wasn't going to stand for that. Sasori could. Not. Die.

There was the distinct feeling of a clamp over his heart and lungs as he leapt up towards the ninja holding the target. There was a lump forming at the back of his throat, and his breath was becoming more irregular as he moved. He didn't feel the clay in his hand, didn't remember throwing the doll at the ninja. He did remember the ninja dodging, because it reminded him that he had to get the target back before he killed the man.

He was perfectly numb as he launched himself towards the ninja, who was still retreating. Sasori wasn't dead, because Sasori couldn't die. Sasori was _Sasori_. It didn't _work_ that way. He caught up to the ninja and slashed at him with a kunai, forcing the man to keep retreating. The man performed hand seals and that rumbling sound filled the room again. Deidara dodged to the left just as a slim spear of stone shot up out of the ground, rocketing towards the beam where they were standing. It shot past him and imbedded itself into the roof, and Deidara paid it no more attention. That wasn't the weapon of Sasori's demise, because Sasori wasn't dead.

He backed off enough to form another clay bomb. The man must have thought he was going to throw it, because he started running. Deidara chased after him, and tripped the man off of the beam when he caught up. He grabbed the target, and threw a clay spider at him as he fell. He turned back to the two other ninja, and didn't pay any attention to the explosion and the cry of agony as the man died.

He didn't remember moving again- but he did remember the soft resistance against his kunai as he pushed the small blade into the back of the smaller ninja's head. The air was thicker than it should have been as he threw the man down and launched himself at the last one. His lungs felt frozen, his stomach was tied in knots. He tore the last man's throat out with the same kunai. Sasori wasn't dead.

At last he turned back towards Sasori's corpse, unnaturally numb. He couldn't feel enough to know if there were tears in his eyes. But what he saw sent him reeling- almost physically- into the floor. There were three corpses on the ground. There were supposed to be four. Sasori wasn't lying on the ground, dead. He was standing up, slowly, moving fine, as if he hadn't just been stabbed through with a rock. There was no blood soaking his Akatsuki coat, and because of the thick black cloth Deidara couldn't see the wound. How was Sasori standing? How was any of this _happening_?

Sasori must have noticed Deidara staring in stunned silence because he squared his shoulders and gave him an apologetic, rueful look. If Sasori was capable of looking rueful.

"Well, are the targets dead?" He asked finally, a little awkwardly.

Deidara nodded dumbly.

"I suppose we should leave, then."

Deidara nodded again.

Sasori slowly turned and began walking out, pausing every few steps to make sure Deidara was still following.

XxxxxxxxxxxxX

An hour later the girl was handed over, the mission accomplished, the leader contacted, and a hotel room was paid for, courtesy of Hiroshi. Deidara claimed a bed before Sasori was even in the room, spun, and pointed at the puppet master. He'd kept pretty quiet for the whole meeting, refraining from asking why Sasori was still even _standing_. But now they were both alone, and Sasori couldn't skirt around the subject any longer.

"Alright, Sasori-danna, yeah. What did you _do_ back there?"

Sasori sighed silently and walked over to the bed that Deidara hadn't claimed. He didn't sit down- he ran his fingers skillfully down the front of the coat, unbuttoning it quickly, instead. He threw the coat onto the bed, revealing that he wore no shirt under the cloth. It wasn't the absence of a shirt that caught Deidara's attention, though. It was Sasori.

He couldn't have been human. The thought flashed through Deidara's mind with regret and another emotion- he wasn't sure what. Sasori's chest looked like wood. It probably _was_ wood. He knew some puppet masters rigged themselves, but this...there were joint lines around an oval-shaped panel on the right side of Sasori's chest- like he could open it. There was some kind of cylinder protruding from the left side of his chest, with vein-like raised areas around it, leading into whatever it was Sasori was made of. The abdomen was the most disturbing, though- it was hollow, filled with coils of a metallic cord. Without the cloak the joints of his arms were clearly visible, as was a joint connecting his head to his neck. A movement behind Sasori caught Deidara's attention- there were wing-like blades coming off of two extra limbs off of Sasori's back, connecting to him a little below where his shoulder blades would be.

There was a hole right above the chamber in his abdomen, where he'd been impaled. There was no blood, no sign that the injury had caused him any pain.

Sasori endured Deidara's stare for a long moment before speaking. It sounded hard for him, though Deidara didn't know why. He'd obviously been like this for a while, by how well he'd hidden it. "This...is why, brat. More than forty years ago, I turned myself into a puppet. I haven't been human for longer than you've been alive."

And this was why Sasori didn't eat. This was why Sasori never seemed to really sleep, only lay on the bed lifelessly. This was why Sasori could wear that cloak in the heat of the summer, and stay in Hiruko for hours on end without getting sore. Deidara had only touched Sasori a few times during their partnership- but this was why he always felt so cold. But...if Sasori couldn't feel, and wasn't human...

Deidara was severely disappointed...or something along those lines. He'd been spending the past few months wondering whether or not Sasori was straight, trying to judge by his daily habits, to no avail. This was probably why. If Sasori wasn't human, Deidara doubted he could manage something like _that_.

Oh, well. It was a shame, but it didn't matter that much. Maybe Deidara could try his luck with one of the other members of the Akatsuki. Who looked decent? Hidan was okay, but he was pretty sure the man was straight. He wasn't even going to think about Kakuzu, Kisame, or Zetsu- Deidara didn't do freaks. Or _that_ freaky, at least. Itachi? Maybe...but the guy was so withdrawn and creepy. Plus, he was stronger than anyone had any right to be. He didn't even know what the leader looked like clearly, so not him, either.

Deidara sighed, and finally let his gaze rise from Sasori's chest to his face. Why did this hurt so much, then? If it was just a matter of screwing Sasori, Deidara shouldn't be this distraught over it. But...he was upset. That feeling of his stomach tying itself into knots had come back, and there was something else bouncing around in his chest, more than just disappointment. Was it leftover from what he'd felt when he'd thought Sasori had died? Why had he reacted like that, anyway?

...Was this more than just attraction? Over these past six months, and it had only been six months, had he fallen...in love?

...With a puppet?


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Notes: Yeah...didn't end up as long as I thought it would. It was harder than I thought it would be to write, though. It should be noted here that I hate writing fighting scenes. I abhore doing them. Which is kind of ironic, considering how many fighting scenes are in this fic. Oh, well...I'm going to try to make this the last fight scene, though. I really don't like doing them...

But, anyway, review, please!

XxxxxxxX

Chapter 7

Deidara had always really hated irony. It made him certain that the gods were laughing at him. Well, if there were gods, he was sure that they laughed at everyone, but whenever he himself experienced an irony, he really just wished the gods would shove it. He wasn't anyone's laughing stock.

So, when he found himself staring at the leader's shadowed form, standing next to Sasori, and listening to their orders rather than reading them off a scroll, Deidara had the gut feeling that there was going to be quite a bit for the gods to be laughing about soon enough. Sasori was already inside Hiruko, so Deidara had no idea of whether the puppet master was thinking the same thing as him, but if he was any judge of Sasori's character, he was pretty sure they were both dreading this next mission.

"It's a follow-up for Kisame and Itachi's recent mission." The leader began, gesturing to a map that he'd laid out on his desk. "They killed a crime lord for me, to eliminate some competition on the market. Now a new group is trying to replace the old. You two are to kill two important officials to the syndicate- both ninja."

It didn't sound too hard to Deidara. Neither had the last mission, which they'd only had a week to recover from, and that certainly hadn't been as easy as it sounded. Deidara was still hurting in unexpected ways from seeing Sasori receive a 'mortal' wound. The fact that Sasori was still standing next to him, alive and well, was no help to him. But Deidara's raw feelings were not the issue here. The leader's orders were.

Even though he was sure Sasori wanted to protest the mission as much as he did, the puppet master took the rolled-up scroll containing the target's identities and the map without comment. The leader dismissed them, and the partners found themselves out in one of the several bleached-white halls of the Akatsuki compound before they could say anything more.

Deidara sighed heavily and turned to Sasori, who was looking down at the scroll through the eyes of Hiruko. "Guess we should get going, yeah?"

Sasori was silent for a while, which Deidara had long gotten used to. His partner had an odd way about him, like he wasn't used to dealing with people, and Deidara now chalked that up to Sasori being a puppet himself. What a weird concept...he was going to have a hard time getting used to that one. The pale skin and lithe form he'd been ogling more than any man had a right to wasn't actually flesh.

Well, Deidara had known that his partner could turn humans into puppets with a technique of his, so it was plausible that he could use it on himself. It was just...he looked so _real_.

"Yes. We'll leave now, and we'll be at the town by dawn." Sasori finally said, beginning to move towards the gate out of the Akatsuki compound, in that slow slide-walk that was Hiruko's movement.

Xxxx

A few hours later, Deidara and Sasori were back on the road, walking at an easy pace. Though Deidara was far from being as relaxed as he looked.

Deidara, to put it plainly, was just a bit stressed. Not about the mission, even though he had a bad feeling about it. But about the fact that he was on a mission, when he was still a bit shaky about the _last_ one. He kept catching glimpses of Sasori out of the corner of his eye, when he was sure Sasori wouldn't notice, just to make sure he was still there. And safely inside Hiruko, without any spikes of rock impaling him. He didn't care if Sasori was a puppet- which was strange in itself- it was just the image of Sasori on that rafter, eyes wide. It was hard to concentrate on anything else but that scene flashing through his mind. Sasori wasn't dead- he was walking right beside him.

He wasn't even fully appreciating the warm air on his skin, the sunlight as it filtered through the trees and baked the dirt of the road. He'd taken off his coat just because of the sheer heat and had it tucked under one arm. He was on the verge of taking off his shirt, too, because with all the heat and sweat the fishnet was getting itchy. But he wasn't paying enough attention to it for the idea to process enough for him to carry out the action.

"Hey, Sasori-danna, yeah?" Deidara asked, after walking the entire trip in silence.

"Hn?" It was a grunt, but Deidara was used to that kind of response by now. Sasori wasn't a talker by any sense of the word.

"Puppets don't sweat, do they, yeah?" It was more of a statement of his thoughts, than a question. For the sake of talking, and figuring out exactly what being a puppet meant.

Sasori was quiet at first, as if the question wasn't worth his immediate attention. "No. I don't sleep, I don't eat, I don't drink. I can't overheat, and I can't feel."

Deidara was silent again. Sasori had said that like he was talking about someone else- like one of the puppets he fought with. That it wasn't really him that wasn't human, as Deidara was wishing was true. This had all taken a turn for the worst- Deidara hated the fact that Sasori wasn't human, hated the fact that he was _attached_ to something that wasn't human. It made everything a hell of a lot harder for Deidara. Everything was more complicated because of this- it was no longer a matter of figuring out how to get Sasori in bed. It wasn't a matter of being disappointed because he _couldn't_ get Sasori in bed. This was a bond Deidara couldn't just _break _like that. And as hard as it was to bear, he had to do it.

"How long have you been a puppet, yeah?" Deidara asked after another long pause. His eyes were on the road before them, not on Hiruko.

Another moment of silence. There were a lot of those lately. The thought briefly flitted through Deidara's head that it might have been his fault.

"Around thirty years." Sasori said finally.

Deidara managed to keep almost silent, though he wasn't sure if Sasori had heard his strangled gasp. He hoped he hadn't. But if he did, he made no mention of it. "How old _are_ you, yeah?"

Hiruko's shoulders twitched- it may have been something of a shrug. "Fifty."

Another barely-silenced wheeze. Deidara was in love with someone at least _thirty_ _years_ his senior? Well...he supposed it wasn't his fault that Sasori looked like he was twenty still. Twenty...and very...well, good. To put it lightly.

Deidara debated what he could say to that. Sasori had just told him that he was fifty, along with the fact that he didn't function like any normal human. That was a lot right there, even if Deidara had brought it upon himself. He glanced at Sasori again out of the corner of his eye, down at Hiruko as he slid along. He wasn't sure he could accurately describe the feeling twisting around in his chest more than just with the word "need". Ever since Sasori had almost died, he'd realized he didn't know what he would do without Sasori. He'd only been Sasori's partner for half a year, but he'd quickly become a major part of the Akatsuki, and he had quickly warmed up to Sasori. Sure, the puppet master was overly serious and could be an ass. But he was _Sasori._ Like the same reasoning he had about Sasori never dying- it just was.

He finally gave up on something to say, and gave a grunt, however delayed it was. He wanted to say "I still love you, even if you _are_ that old" but that was hardly appropriate. For one, Sasori didn't know. And two, Sasori probably didn't need the counseling. He sounded pretty comfortable with it. Though there _was_ something strange in his voice that Deidara couldn't quite put his finger on. The blond nin sighed and resigned himself to a quiet trip, folding his hands behind his head and staring at the sky longingly.

XxxxxxxxxxX

Someone was missing.

Deidara stood and kept his blood-covered hand out, trying to avoid getting it on his coat. At his feet was a newly-dead corpse, blood still leaking out of burn wounds along it side. He'd examined the damn thing to make sure that it was indeed one of the targets the leader wanted dead, thus, the blood on his hand. He'd just managed to confirm the body's identity, but there were two targets. There had only been one in the troop of men.

Wiping his hand off on a clean portion of the corpse's clothing, Deidara huffed a sigh. That meant they had another skilled ninja to track down across the entire continent- the equivalent of finding the needle in a freaking mountain of hay. Well, they'd have to track the man down only if Sasori couldn't find him in the nearby area, which was where Sasori's spy had said both targets would be.

When Sasori landed beside him via body-flicker jutsu without another dead body, Deidara knew he hadn't found the second target. Deidara whined lightly in the back of his throat and crossed his arms, kicking the ninja he'd just killed.

"So what're we gonna do, yeah?" Deidara asked. He really didn't want to go find the other target...

"We go find the other target."

Deidara felt his eye twitch, but he didn't snap at Sasori. They had to complete their mission, he knew. It was just going to be more of a pain than it would have been if their information had been right.

"Do you think he's running from us, yeah?" Deidara asked, the thought occurring to him that the second target had somehow known about his pending assassination. Had Sasori's spy betrayed them?

"Yes, I believe he is." Sasori said, bending down to inspect the corpse. It figured that Sasori wouldn't trust him enough not to double check his work.

Sasori finished the double-check of the body in seconds, stood, and gestured towards the direction of their hotel room. "Let us be off, then."

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"Wait...so that's him, yeah?"

The form beside him shifted enough so that Deidara knew Sasori had nodded.

In his own opinion, that little man sitting at the dango stand didn't look like a ninja. He wasn't even on his guard. He was on the chunky side, too. No weapons were in view, but kunai and jutsus were hidden easily enough. What had Deidara off-balance about the man was how ignorant he looked, compared to how long it had taken Sasori's spies to locate him. They'd been out, bouncing from village to village contacting spies and connections for an entire _month_. They were both thoroughly fed up with the search. But now they'd apparently found their missing target- he just didn't look like a dangerous ninja.

Deidara shifted on the branch he and Sasori were sitting on and eased some clay out of his pouch silently. If Sasori was sure that man was the target, Deidara would comply. He snuck a side-long glance at Sasori- he was out of Hiruko at the moment, because they were approaching this mission on a stealth basis, and his eyes were focused on the man below them. It was obvious Sasori was seeing something Deidara wasn't. Maybe the guy was more powerful than he looked.

Regardless of the man's abilities, Deidara deftly sculpted a bird out of the small glob of clay, and enlarged it with a bit of chakra. It came to life and perched on his arm, cold eyes fixed on the ninja below them. He waited a moment to give Sasori the chance to stop him, and when the puppet master was silent, launched the bird at the man. It glided down almost cheerfully and landed on the bench beside the man. The supposed ninja looked at it dumbly for a second before Deidara set it off. As he lost sight of the target due to the smoke and flames, Deidara dropped down from the tree, ignoring the screams of the civilians that had also been at the dango stand. He had more clay in both hands as he hit the ground, ready to use it as soon as the target came back into view.

When the smoke cleared enough to see- it only took a second or two- the target was no longer there. It was a classic disappearing act, something ninjas learned how to do and counter within their first year of training. Deidara wasn't particularly worried- he could feel the man's chakra appear behind him, predictably.

And it was because Deidara was not expecting anything strange that it was such a shock when he felt a sharp pain in his lower back. Alarmed, he leapt forward and pivoted, another clay bird already leaving his hand. The target was standing where Deidara had been standing, kunai extended and easily held in one hand. This guy was _fast_. He was way to jolly, too- there was a serene smile still on his face and a twinkle in his eye.

"Well, now, what could I possibly have done to enrage the great Akatsuki?" The man even _sounded_ happy.

Deidara didn't bother answering and mentally took a status report of his new injury. There was blood slowly wetting the cloth on his lower back, plastering his coat to his shirt. It stung, and the wet feeling was uncomfortable, but it wouldn't impair his fighting. Deidara now focused on controlling the bird he'd thrown, directing it at the man.

The bird launched itself through the air like an arrow, but the man knew what his clay could do, now, and dodged it. Deidara didn't detonate it- he sent the bird back around and at the man again, but the man made a series of hand seals, and his chakra did something strange. Deidara had never felt anything like it before; the man's chakra began bubbling in on itself, growing, becoming greater. But chakra couldn't grow of itself like that- it had to have a source. Or at least, that was what Deidara had always been taught.

The chakra piqued, and flew out around the man like a shock wave. The air tingled against Deidara's skin, and the area grew dimmer, like the chakra was half-blocking out the sun. The chakra didn't go very far- it stopped in circle around them, creating a dome-like arena. Sasori wasn't inside of the chakra, which Deidara probably figured was a good thing. The strange thing was that even though the man was looking at him smugly, Deidara couldn't feel anything wrong. The air felt strange from being drenched in the man's chakra, but it wasn't hurting him. He could move normally, he could sense everything. Nothing was being harmed-

Or at least, that was what he thought until he saw his clay bird fall to the ground, lifeless. He hadn't reabsorbed the chakra from the bird- it should have still been active.

"I can see from the shock on your face you know what my jutsu is doing to you." The man was talking, but Deidara was still staring in mute shock at the bird. "Any chakra you try to use will be absorbed by the air, and turned to making the field stronger." The man had reached into a pouch strapped to his chubby leg, and was pulling out a pair of gloves. Gloves with blades extending from the knuckles. "I hope you know how to fight, pretty boy."

Deidara recovered from his shock and sneered, jumping back and away from the man. He landed right beside the end of the strange chakra field and pressed against the edge, finding it solid. So he couldn't get out, then. He'd have to defeat this man. Deidara's eyes narrowed and he dropped his clay pouch to the ground, and opened the front of his Akatsuki coat. He drew two kunai, holding one in each hand like daggers.

"Deidara!" It was Sasori, from somewhere outside the jutsu. Deidara didn't take his eyes off the man long enough to look for his danna. He sounded worried, though. He probably said something more, but Deidara had leapt forward, towards the man, holding the kunai in a reversed hold.

Deidara had always been known as being pretty fast back in Iwa. Before he'd started using clay, before he'd placed the mouths in his hands via forbidden jutsu, he had been the fastest in his class. He was ahead a few years because of his genius, and was generally able to outrun and outmaneuver kids three to four years his seniors easily. He never exploited his speed, though. He relied on his clay once he learned how to use it effectively. Here, though, Deidara was going to regret that decision.

He'd thought the man was fast before, when he'd pulled that disappearing act. As Deidara struck at him with his kunai, Deidara knew that speed hadn't been the half of it. The man was playing with him as Deidara pushed his body to move faster, easily parrying with those gloves of his. Every counter the man made Deidara was barely able to block, and within seconds Deidara was covered with minor scratches from where he'd barely missed getting skewered. And with all the moving around, Deidara could feel the wound on his back tear open further, increasing his blood loss.

Deidara leapt back after the first scuffle, panting. The man didn't follow him- he was just standing in the middle of the jutsu, smiling happily. Blood was running down all of Deidara's exposed skin in small droplets. At this rate, he'd pass out from blood loss before he could kill the man. And he had to kill the man, because Sasori was counting on him.

He'd just caught his breath when the man pulled that disappearing move again. Deidara was just dodging forward to avoid getting hit in the back when the man appeared in front of him, not behind. Cursing lividly Deidara changed his momentum sharply to his right, but the man was already slashing at him. Biting pain exploded along the left side of his face, but Deidara managed to avoid serious injury. Deidara skidded to a stop far from the man, and a hand flew up to his face, to feel the damage. His left eye was hurting like a bitch, and fresh blood was running down his chin. He didn't dare open his eye- he didn't know how bad the damage was, and that handicapped him. Great.

The fact that his face was bleeding didn't distract Deidara, though. He used the motion of his left hand covering his eye in shock to let his right hand slip into the pouch at his leg quickly and slip wire around the hilt of his kunai. He finally let his left hand drop, wiped the blood off on his coat, and glared at the man for damaging his eye. If he went half-blind because of that, he was going to be _pissed_. Deidara threw both kunai at the man, which he easily dodged, to Deidara's relief.

The Iwa nin had another kunai in one hand and was pulling on the wire now surrounding the man with the other as he leapt towards his target. The man was shocked, that was obvious, but was in the process of getting out of the wire as Deidara reached him. Deidara buried his kunai hilt-deep in the man's side, and jumped away just as the man got free. He took a blow on his left arm gladly, knowing the damage wasn't as bad as the damage he'd just inflicted on the man.

Both ninja leapt back to recover. Deidara tore off the sleeve on his left arm, since the cloth was already half-shredded anyway. Blood ran freely down his arm just like it was the rest of his body, but Deidara ignored it for the most part. The man pulled the kunai from his side and felt around the wound for a moment, before looking at Deidara again. Finally, he wasn't smiling.

"You're a bad boy, aren't you?" The man clicked his tongue and readied himself to charge again. "It's not nice to stick your toys into other people. That could really hurt someone."

Deidara would have laughed and made some kind of comment back for the sheer ridiculousness of what the man had said, but he was too busy leaping in for another attack.

During the next scuffle, Deidara got his thigh slashed open and the shoulder of his right arm sliced. He could still stand, but at the rate he was loosing blood, he didn't know for how long. He'd managed to hit the man across the chest, but it was a shallow cut.

He had to finish this. The world was starting to spin on him, threatening his balance, and black spots were blossoming in his vision. He didn't have enough blood to continue this fight any longer. And Deidara knew how he would end it- he just didn't know how he was going to do it without getting himself killed too. He didn't have a choice, though. It was either kill the man or be killed; Sasori couldn't help him, and it wasn't like he could retreat.

Deidara charged the man head-on, much to the man's surprise. Deidara saw the ninja start an uppercut towards his abdomen, but Deidara didn't block it. The man's eyes widened impossibly as his blades struck flesh, embedding themselves deep in Deidara's side. Deidara cut open the ninja's throat with his kunai before the man could recover, and the target fell dead.

The jutsu fell, the chakra in the air around him dispersing with a rush of cool wind. Deidara staggered and clutched his side, his breath light and shallow. He turned with a great deal of effort and found Sasori staring at him in horror mixed with something else...Deidara couldn't tell what it was, the world was disappearing too fast for that. He smiled wanly before he lost it, giving Sasori that cocky grin he always had after he won a fight.

"Mission...accomplished, yeah."

The last thing he saw was the ground rushing up to meet him.


	8. Chapter 8

Author's notes: Alright, I got a review commenting about the ages of our artistic Akatsuki members before. Deidara's age I'm a bit iffy about in this fic, I realize this. I'm thinking he's around fourteen or so. That's still a little young to my mind, but I'm going to make this work anyway. Sasori I'm thinking is around fifty. If I'm missing some mention of his age in the manga, tell me. But that's how I'm thinking it's at right now, at any rate.

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Chapter 8

The next sensation Deidara registered was that of fingers on his arm. His bare arm, which was rather odd. He could have sworn that he was wearing his Akatsuki coat during the fight. Maybe someone had taken it off to bandage him? He felt the tightness of cloth wrapped around his midsection, so those were probably the bandages.

There was something hard wrapped around his ankles...his wrists, too. He tried to move an arm, and found his couldn't. Were those bonds, on his limbs? Where _was_ he? Did the enemy capture him?

Panic cut through the drowsy state of post-unconsciousness, and Deidara's eyes shot open, only to squint and almost close again when they were affronted by almost blinding light. There was some kind of overhead light, right above him, like some kind of light to work by. He was on a table, his wrists and ankles cuffed down to the wood under him. His shirt was removed, but he was still wearing pants, thankfully. He didn't feel any tightness on his scalp, so he assumed his hair had been taken down from the half-tie he always had it in.

He looked up, against the light, to try and make out who was standing above him. There was a man, the one prodding his arm gently, but not to wake him up. It felt like the man was searching for something in the crook of his elbow. A vein, perhaps? Deidara didn't want to know what the man wanted to inject him with.

"Where 'm I, yeah?" Deidara asked drowsily, still trying to make out the man's face. It was in shadow from the light, though.

"We're back at the base. You almost died on the way here."

With a start, Deidara realized the one prodding him was Sasori. He'd recognize Sasori's voice anywhere. Sasori sounded cold, though, and...angry, was it? Deidara wasn't sure what that extra emotion was, but he knew he didn't like it. Something heavy settled in the pit of Deidara's stomach as he watched Sasori's hands examine his arm, fingers cold against his flesh.

He looked back up, barely making out Sasori's face, now. His mouth was set in a stern line and his eyes were more focused than they usually were. They looked perturbed, though. Like something was bothering him.

"Sasori-danna...what are you doing, yeah? Why am I tied down?" Deidara hadn't meant to sound that weak, but his head was still having a field day and his body hurt in more ways than he could count, so he could forgive himself for sounding pathetic this once.

Sasori leaned in, which Deidara was partly thankful for. He could see Sasori's face better, if he was closer. Their noses were almost touching when Sasori finally stopped closing the distance between them, making Deidara blink. He'd always thought Sasori didn't like close contact, so something like this, which was initiated by Sasori himself, surprised him. Deidara was also able to pin down that emotion he'd spotted vaguely in Sasori's eyes before, but couldn't identify. It was fear.

"You almost _died_ Deidara. I'm not going to let you die." Sasori sounded more rattled than Deidara had ever heard him. Almost fragile.

But he hadn't answered Deidara's question. And until he did, Deidara wasn't going to be able to quell the growing hunch in his stomach. And that hunch scared him, so he knew it had to be wrong. Because Sasori wouldn't do something like that, not in a million years.

"But why can't I get up, yeah?" Deidara asked hesitantly, almost afraid of the answer. He wasn't bothering to hide the quaver in his voice.

"I'm _not_ going to let you _die._ It _hurt_, Deidara. It hurt to watch you almost get killed. I didn't think you were going to survive and it _hurt like nothing I've ever felt_. I'm not going to let that happen again- _I'm not going to let you die!_"

Sasori was getting hysterical. Deidara didn't know how else to term it. His speech was getting faster, his tone louder, and all that was telling Deidara something that he had the feeling he'd known for a while now, somewhere at the back of his mind. The same way that he knew why seeing Sasori 'die' had hurt as much as it did. Something was growing between them- it wasn't just one-sided anymore, and that was what had Sasori looking at him in a strange state of fear. Sasori wasn't used to this- if Deidara was right, Sasori hadn't felt anything this strong in decades. It wasn't surprising that he would be a bit overwhelmed, anyone would. But that didn't explain the whole tying him down to the table thing.

Deidara's eyes grew twice their usual size as he saw Sasori pull a scalpel from somewhere off to the side, probably another work table. He brought it down to rest against Deidara's elbow, like he was going to_ slice his arm off_. It was only then that this whole situation clicked, and Deidara realized his hunch was right.

"Sasori! Stop!" He barked it quickly, and Sasori stopped out of surprise. Deidara didn't even realize he'd forgotten his customary 'danna' and 'yeah'. "Turning me into a puppet isn't going to help anything, dammit!"

He'd forgotten to count the fact that Sasori had turned himself into a puppet for a reason. He'd forgotten to add the possible emotional pitfalls that had created a situation like that, that Sasori would turn himself into a puppet rather than living with the rest of the mortal humans. _Sasori wasn't stable_. It was a cold shock to Deidara, but the fevered look in Sasori's eyes agreed with the statement. Sasori didn't like being hurt, and when he was hurt, he didn't react well to it. Especially when he was hurt in a way he hadn't expected.

That much was obvious by the way Sasori was looking at him.

"But it will, Deidara. You'll be immortal, just like me. You won't have to die!" Sasori was bringing the scalpel dangerously close to Deidara's flesh again.

Deidara cursed the fact that he was injured and that he didn't have any clay with him right now, because Sasori was not going to listen to reason. He was hurt, scared, and as long as there was the possibility of Deidara dying, Sasori wasn't going to back down from stopping it. But Deidara had no intention of becoming a puppet anytime soon. He liked his flesh, and had the strong desire to keep it, regardless of what his hysterical partner had to say about that.

"Sasori, you aren't going to do this, yeah." Deidara said sternly, looking Sasori in the eye. The scalpel stopped moving momentarily. Alright, so that was the key. Keep him distracted by talking. "You aren't thinking this through, yeah. I don't want to become a puppet."

Sasori's eyes narrowed, and to someone who didn't know him, he'd really look insane. Deidara didn't believe that, though. Not for a second. Sasori may want to turn him into a puppet, but he wasn't insane.

"What you want doesn't matter. This is for your own good." Sasori said sternly, like a parent talking to their child.

Deidara winced as the thin blade of the scalpel pierced his flesh. The ball of fear that had begun in his chest grew as he watched Sasori slowly begin to slice open his arm.

"Sasori-danna!" Deidara was getting frantic now. Sasori wasn't doing this! This was _not_ happening!

"Sasori, what do you think you're doing?"

Both partners froze- Sasori lifted the scalpel away from Deidara's arm and Deidara stopped trying to break his bonds. Both turned towards the door- and Deidara was very surprised to see a pair of silver eyes looking at them both in mild surprise. It was Kisame, standing in the doorway. But it hadn't been Kisame that had spoken...Leader was behind him, glaring at Sasori over Kisame's shoulder.

"Sasori, come with me." The Leader was giving a 'come here' gesture, and Sasori reluctantly put down the scalpel and stood from the stool he'd been sitting on.

Relief flooded Deidara as both Sasori and the Leader walked down the hall, out of Deidara's field of vision. Kisame stepped forward, walking slowly, like he didn't trust Deidara not to bite him or something. Which was odd, considering Deidara was tied down.

Kisame broke the metal bonds around Deidara's limbs easily, stunning the blond momentarily with the pure strength that must have taken to do. Kisame was powerful; Deidara couldn't forget that. Everyone here was.

Deidara sat up, wincing all the way. The wounds along his torso were protesting any movement, but he wasn't about to stay there. His arm was bleeding from where Sasori had cut it, but a quick burst of chakra stopped the blood. He swung his legs over the side of the table, and paused a moment before standing to catch his breath. He hated being wounded...

Kisame must have seen how much effort it took Deidara to get up, because before the Iwa nin could protest, Kisame was taking one of Deidara's arms and draping it over his shoulders. The height difference made the help a bit awkward, but Deidara was grateful for the support. They began walking out of Sasori's room in silence.

Half-way down the hall, Kisame finally broke the quiet with a low murmur. Deidara could only hear it because his ear was near Kisame's mouth. "Damn Leader. I told him putting a kid like you with Sasori wasn't a good idea." He paused a moment to reach one arm out and open the door to Deidara's room. "He should've stuck Kakuzu and Sasori together. Hidan's safer than the puppet freak..."

The final words of the complaint were grunted as Kisame set Deidara down onto his bed. As soon as he was sure he wasn't going to fall off, Deidara shook his head vehemently. "No, I like being with Sasori-danna, yeah."

"He just tried to turn you into one of his puppets, kid. You nuts, too, now?" Kisame may have been gruff, but it was obvious he was worried about Deidara. Over the few months Deidara had been part of the Akatsuki, he must have bugged Kisame enough to have become a solid presence here, if Kisame was worried.

Deidara gestured vehemently, though in retrospect, that may not have been a good idea. It got him dizzy and the wound on his elbow started bleeding again because of it. "Sasori-danna's just not thinking straight, yeah. I almost died and it scared him. He's not going to turn me into a puppet."

Kisame settled his gaze upon Deidara and gave him a _look_. Like he pitied him or something, though Deidara didn't know what he'd done to deserve it. He didn't like being pitied- it made him feel weak.

"Kid, you're in deeper shit than you realize." Kisame sighed and sat down on the bed next to Deidara, looking awkward. It was obvious that he didn't really want to have this talk, but he was going through with it anyway. "Sasori- well, we never worried about Sasori 'cause he was partnered with Orochimaru, the snake-guy. He was a sannin, and they got along pretty well. If you ask me, Oro was worse in the head than Sasori was, but that's just me. But ever since you came along..."

Kisame gestured helplessly, like what he was saying should be obvious. It wasn't. Deidara was still stuck on the statement 'worse in the head'. What was Kisame saying...? Sasori wasn't _insane_. That made him seem dangerous, using that word. Sasori wasn't dangerous, well, at least, not to Deidara. Sure, Sasori was deadly to their enemies. But Sasori would never hurt him on purpose.

The cut on the inside of his elbow, beginning to hurt now that the adrenaline was wearing off, contradicted that line of thought. Deidara didn't care. Sasori would not hurt him.

"Kid-" Kisame sighed and apparently abandoned what he was about to say. He looked Deidara in the eye, and Deidara gave him the most confident look he could manage. Sasori wasn't insane, and Sasori wouldn't hurt him. He didn't care what the rest of the Akatsuki had to say about that. If the Leader wanted to break up their partnership now, after this incident, Deidara was going to fight it with everything he had.

"...You really love the nutcase, don't you?" Kisame asked suddenly, looking grim but accepting.

Deidara blinked. Then blinked again. Love...? The word sounded foreign to him for some reason. He'd come to the conclusion before, but it sounded so strange hearing someone say it aloud.

The pain he'd felt when he saw Sasori impaled, the thought that Sasori could have been dead crossed his mind. That had hurt like nothing else he'd felt before, it had sent him into a panicking rage he hadn't known he was capable of. He didn't even remember killing the rest of the ninja in that room- he just knew that he had to get to Sasori, and those ninja were in his way. The happiness he felt when Sasori gave him that worn, patient little grin whenever Deidara did something pleasing. The apology that Sasori had in his eyes when he realized how distraught Deidara had been over his 'death', and how that had healed the hurt more than anything else could have. Was all that love?

The steady belief that Sasori wouldn't kill him. That no matter how strange the puppet master could be at times, he wouldn't hurt Deidara.

It was love.

Deidara finally nodded to Kisame, after a long silence. The bond he'd known he had was more than like or lust. This was, no matter how much of a pain it was going to be, love. "I guess I do, yeah."

Kisame seemed surprised that he'd gotten an answer. "Well, that's good, 'cause I don't think Leader'll split you two up now. That's gonna cause repercussions with Sasori, and Leader doesn't want to loose a good warrior."

That was a relief to Deidara. He didn't want to fight the Leader over being separated from Sasori. The Leader...where was Leader? He'd taken Sasori, hadn't he? A rush of panic flooded Deidara's system, and he struggled to stand. He had to go and see if Sasori was alright. He didn't want the Leader doing anything to him- it wasn't Sasori's fault that he was unstable-

A pair of strong arms pushed him back to the bed, and Deidara found himself staring up at Kisame's face, a strong frown creasing the Mist-nin's blue skin.

"What're you think you're doing? You have to rest for a while."

Deidara shook his head, fighting against Kisame. He growled in frustration, yanking his hair out of his face, so he could see Kisame clearly. "What's Leader doing with Sasori-danna, yeah? He isn't going to hurt Sasori-danna, is he!"

Kisame looked surprised at that, and sat back. A hand was still on Deidara's shoulder, keeping him down on the bed. "Nah, Leader's just gonna calm him down a bit. He's got a lot of techniques for breakdowns like this, from having Zetsu in the group for so long. Sasori's been here for a while, too. Leader's gotten kinda good at this kind of stuff." He shook his head, taking his hand off Deidara when the blond settled down. "You're just lucky I heard you yellin'."

Deidara looked away from Kisame, towards the door that was still open. He didn't want to think about that. Sasori wouldn't hurt him, so nothing would have happened there. But still...he didn't think he'd feel comfortable sleeping without his clay for a while.

After a period of silence, Kisame stood and walked towards the door. He stooped in the doorway, and looked back at Deidara. "You get some rest, kid."

Before Kisame had the chance to leave, Deidara wanted to ask him one more question. "Kisame-san, wait, yeah." When he had the shark-man's full attention, Deidara continued. "How long is Sasori-danna going to be with Leader, yeah?"

Kisame shrugged. "I don't know. A few hours, probably."

"Can you- can you tell him to come see me? When he's feeling better, yeah."

Kisame looked surprised. More surprised than he had for their entire conversation. He finally nodded, then walked out, closing the door behind him.

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Review?


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Uh...well, here's chapter 9. Finally. And it's...depressingly short. -hides from objects thrown in anger-

Well, anyway. This chapter fought me with everything it had and more as I tried to write it...so that accounts for some of the lateness, anyway. I finally trashed Deidara's point of view for a chapter and switched over into Sasori's for a bit. It fit better. So, while the great gods of Consistency shall descend and send me into an eternity of agony amid flames for such discrepency, it is a much better chapter than the Deidara point of view one that I had half-finished a week ago.

Enjoy.

Chapter 9

At some point, he'd become a creature of habit. As a child, he'd been a picture-perfect ninja. Trained by the great puppeteer Chiyo, and put through the rigorous training of the Suna schools, he'd been adaptable. Ninja had to be adaptive- their lives depended on how well they survived in their environments. But ever since leaving Suna and turning most of his own flesh into wood, Sasori had changed. He'd changed much more than he'd thought he had. But now...he could see how different he'd become.

When Deidara had been assigned as his partner, Sasori had been reluctant, because it was different. Orochimaru had been his partner for years- they'd worked well together, but when he'd left Sasori hadn't thought twice about it. He'd worked just as well alone. But then Deidara had come along...

The boy had upset his balance. Loud, determined, no modesty with a touch of sadism and...potent. Like a taste of whiskey after years of drinking wine. Not only had it caught him off-guard, but it was continually throwing him off-balance. _He_ was throwing him off-balance.

But now...Sasori found himself attached to Deidara. More than attached.

He stared at his hands. Then past his hands to his work table. There were still a few strands of blond hair on it that were gleaming at him happily. Taunting him for his mistakes. He growled in outrage and tore at the table. It buckled and flipped under the blow. The hair floated to the ground peacefully, unharmed. He sank to his knees slowly, picked up the hair, and stared at it. Deidara had almost died. But then...Sasori had almost killed him. Turning Deidara into a puppet would have finished the job that missing nin had started. Deidara would never have left him, but it would no longer have been Deidara. Just like he was no longer the disenchanted boy that was once Sasori.

Deidara was waiting for him. Kisame had informed him that Deidara was waiting. And somehow Sasori knew Deidara would be waiting, regardless of how long it took him. The question was, what was he doing that would take so long...?

An answer. A reason. Something to explain what had made him almost kill his younger partner. Sasori didn't know what it was, and had no way to curb the emotion. It had been too long since he felt anything. This would take more effort from him, more time, than any jutsu he'd ever mastered. But he was willing to take on the challenge.

Xxxxxxx

He ran. He ran, and he ran, but he couldn't get there. He wasn't sure where he was trying to get, but he knew he had to get there. And he couldn't. He wasn't getting tired, either. He'd been running for longer than he could remember, and he still wasn't tired.

A cool wave of patience washed over him. The sense of urgency faded, he slowed his run to a walk. He had to get there, but suddenly he felt like he had all the time in the world to reach it. Strange.

The ceiling above his bed swam into view, slowly. He realized he was awake, now. And staring at his own ceiling, while laying in his own bed, in his own room. Not on a table with Sasori leaning over him, holding a knife.

He figured that was a good thing. But he was still so tired and sleep-muddled that he didn't quite know why. He sat up slowly, and the room began pitching back and forth, as his vision began getting blurry. Like looking through mist at a dark world, he wasn't quite sure what he was looking at anymore.

But he thought there was a face staring at him from the shadows. An angry face, with beady eyes and a set mouth resigned to whatever it was going to do.

Tired, he fell back onto the bed and closed his eyes. Peripherally, he heard the door creak open, followed by the thump of a solid mass hitting the floor.

He began walking again, trying to get wherever he was trying to go.

Xxxxxxx

A few hours later, Sasori opened the door to Deidara's room and stepped inside hesitantly. He was both disappointed and incredibly relieved when he looked over to the bed and found Deidara asleep. He was pale, with bruises decorating his skin in sick purples and blacks. Bandages that Sasori himself had applied showed a need for changing- they were growing dark with blood as it soaked through. Injured, uneasily asleep as he was with a frown on his face, Deidara looked like a lost child, something that needed his protection. But it was that line of thought that had led him to try and turn him into a puppet. Deidara was powerful in his own right. Sasori didn't have to shelter him.

Deidara stirred as Sasori walked over to the bed, but didn't wake. After a moment of contemplation, Sasori sat down on a corner of the bed, inches away from Deidara's sheet-covered legs. He still did not awaken. Taking that as a good sign, Sasori laid a hand on Deidara's leg, just out of impulse. Deidara scooted over to him, still asleep, as if asking for more of the contact.

Sasori couldn't help the smile that threatened to touch his lips. Perhaps he didn't have an answer quite yet, maybe he didn't even know the question. But for now, he could wait.

Xxxxxx

With a hefty sigh, Kisame set himself down onto the cough in one of the main living quarters in the Akatsuki base. The only other people in the room were Kakuzu, Itachi, and the Leader.

"They're all right, then?" The leader spoke softly, as if the information was confidential. Or he was just tired.

"Sasori went back into the kid's room. He looked sane." Kisame murmured.

"I don't suppose we should tell them...?" Kakuzu suddenly spoke up. All eyes looked to him.

"About the spy...? No." The leader said definitively. "At least...not yet."

Kisame nodded dejectedly, and looked over at the door leading to the nearest hall- the hall to the personal quarters. "We can wait until he heals, but I don't want to wait too long." Kisame said slowly, half in thought.

"...I agree." Kisame looked over at Itachi, surprised that he had said anything.

The leader stood and headed for the door to his office in the back of the room. "We'll see."


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Yay! Chapter 10, finally. Somehow, this has actually been written for a week, but didn't actually get typed up until Friday. Well, some of it was written, anyway. I have to thank you all for the reviews- they keep me going on this, seriously. So, enjoy!

XxxxxxxxxxX

Chapter 10

Deidara woke up, somehow feeling worse off than he had earlier. But with the adrenaline long gone, Deidara supposed it shouldn't have been much of a surprise. He stared up at the ceiling, glaring at it as it swam into view, as if it was the cause of all his troubles on its own. He stared at it until he realized that there was a reason he'd woken up. His senses prickled and Deidara tore his gaze off the ceiling-

...And found his unbandaged blue eye captured by unreadable brown ones.

"S-sasori-danna?" Deidara stuttered, and struggled to sit up on reflex.

A firm hand pressed Deidara back down into the bed, and kept him there. He shrugged the hand off and settled back down, trying to read the look in Sasori's eyes. If he had to guess at it, Deidara would have called it something like regret.

A thick silence settled upon them as Deidara waited for Sasori to say something. Sasori looked like he was thinking- and Deidara knew better than to interrupt. This situation rested entirely on Sasori. Deidara had already done what he needed to do- he was not afraid of Sasori, and did not doubt him. He'd forgiven Sasori, did not think less of him because of his mental instability. Now all that was left was up to Sasori- to accept the bond Deidara was offering. He could do nothing to help Sasori through this, which he regretted but was unable to change.

Finally Sasori reached out and lightly placed his fingertips on Deidara's forehead, right above his bandaged eye. The look of regret still haunted his eyes, and for a heart-stopping moment, Deidara thought he would refuse.

"Your eye is damaged." Sasori began, and the ball of tension in Deidara's stomach unwound slowly. "It won't be able to handle direct light any longer."

Deidara flinched, as if hit. He knew something was wrong with his eye, but the fact that he would never be able to use it again was painfully disappointing. "It won't...heal, yeah?"

Sasori shook his head. "No, it won't." Sasori looked like he wanted to continue, so Deidara didn't speak. Finally, Sasori said what had been floating in his eyes. "I can...put a lens over it. It will protect the eyes, so you can use it again..."

"A lens you'd have to attach surgically." Deidara stated, guessing at what was causing Sasori to hesitate. If he could just make a lens that Deidara could remove, Sasori wouldn't look that resistant to suggesting the idea.

"...Yes. I'd have to attach the base apparatus of it surgically."

Another silence fell, as Deidara debated what to do. If Sasori had to do surgery on him, would Sasori have another breakdown? Deidara wouldn't be able to defend himself if he was unconscious. But would defending himself be necessary? He trusted Sasori to overcome any issues he had. But if there _was_ another breakdown, Deidara would be the cause of it. Again. And he would be unconscious- unable to help.

...Sasori wouldn't have another breakdown, Deidara realized. There was a resolve in the puppet master's brown eyes that was more stability than Deidara had ever seen in Sasori. He didn't know where it had come from, but it was more assurance than words or Deidara's own thoughts could ever manage.

"Alright, yeah." Deidara murmured. "I'll do it."

Sasori seemed to relax at that; even though he had a wooden, inhuman body, Deidara could still see the tension that had built being released. The hand that Sasori still had touching Deidara's head dropped listlessly, but before Sasori could let it rest in his lap, Deidara caught it in his own. He grinned tiredly at the strange look Sasori gave him, but didn't let it go.

"Brat, I'm-"

"Don't apologize, yeah." Deidara interrupted. If Sasori apologized, Deidara didn't think he'd be able to take it. That meant Sasori had done something wrong- that he'd really been as close to doing something irreversible as it had seemed. And Sasori _hadn't _been close- he wouldn't do that.

Sasori looked confused, but seemed to accept what Deidara wanted. "Alright. I'll...go and prepare the lens, then."

Deidara made a faint whiny sound in the back of his throat as Sasori took back his hand and stood from where he was sitting on the corner of his bed. The puppet master walked out of the door without a glance back, and Deidara settled down for another long wait.

XxxxxxxxX

"Are you sure you want to go through with this?"

Deidara looked up at Sasori, into warring brown eyes. Sasori looked five seconds from backing out, though Deidara didn't know exactly why. Deidara had agreed to this- Sasori shouldn't be worrying. What had happened to the determination he'd seen before Sasori had gone to get his equipment? Was he having second thoughts? He _couldn't _be, because it was that doubt, that internal war that Deidara had seen in Sasori's eyes on the work table back in Sasori's room. It was a screaming beacon of Sasori's instability, a mindset Deidara couldn't let Sasori operate in.

Sasori was staring at the small table he'd set up as if he'd never seen the tools before. Like the knives and surgical tools were live snakes ready to bite if he touched any of them. For a split second, Deidara could see the child Sasori must have once been, before whatever had destroyed that child happened, before the puppets. The moment was gone before Deidara could really see anything, and that cloudy look was back in moments. Seeing that the struggle wouldn't be ending any time soon, Deidara cleared his throat rather loudly to try and get Sasori's attention. He still seemed lost in his own world, but his eyes slowly focused on Deidara.

"Sasori." Deidara didn't tag on that little 'danna' on purpose. It had more of an impact. "You aren't going to hurt me, yeah. You haven't up until now." He said it slowly, making sure each word hung with equal weight in the air.

Sasori stared at him for a long time. Deidara got the feeling that the raw uncertainty and inner struggle in Sasori was something he didn't usually allow others to see. That somehow, Sasori trusted Deidara with the turmoil- or maybe Sasori didn't have a choice. With the way he was only barely absorbing his surroundings- the way he'd struggled to pay attention to Deidara- he didn't have the choice of facing it down alone. He was stuck where he was, and whether he liked it or not, Deidara was helping.

Sasori hadn't responded to Deidara's reassurance, so he pressed on. "You're fussing over nothing, yeah. I need the lens to fight again. Only you know how to put it in."

Deidara wasn't sure if his words had much of an effect, but it seemed that Sasori began to calm down after a while. The fight in his eyes started to fade, and his face began to smooth to the usual calm, emotionless mask he wore. The hesitation, the doubt, was still there, but Sasori seemed to have found the determination that he'd had earlier. He turned, and picked up a syringe from the table. He laid the pointed tip against the crook of Deidara's arm, and looked up into the former Iwa nin's eyes.

"This isn't normal anesthesia. It's a watered down version of one of my poisons. It will numb you and reduce your heart rate enough to knock you out, then keep you asleep. But when you wake up, you'll feel like shit. You also might wake up before I'm done, but hopefully you'll be numb long enough for me to finish."

Deidara thought a moment about that. He should have expected that Sasori didn't have any conventional medicines, and the fact that a puppet master would improvise with poisons was predictable. But Sasori seemed unsure on the poison's exact effects- which was probably because he didn't know how fast Deidara's metabolism might be, or his resistance to poison. But he trusted Sasori's guess. He knew this would work out. If not because of Sasori's skill, then because Deidara had always had pretty good luck.

"Alright, yeah." At the confirmation, Deidara could feel the faint pinch as the needle slid into his skin. "And Sasori-danna?"

A rather comfortable, warm, numbing sensation was spreading out from his arm. "Yes?" Came Sasori's soft reply.

"I trust you, yeah." Deidara managed, smiling once before sliding into unconsciousness.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Kakuzu sighed in a manner that made it clear that he was _very_ close to killing something. "C'mon, plant boy, just spit it out!"

The subject of Kakuzu's anger, Zetsu, chuckled strangely, and tilted his head to look at the taller ninja. "I think he wants information. **Yes, I agree. I think he wants to know about the spy.**"

The self-proclaimed treasurer surged out of his seat and approached Zetsu threateningly. His height made him a rather imposing figure, but the plant-like man didn't seem to notice him.

"Yes, quite. Just look at him! So angry! **We should tell him. Just because he thinks he can be threatening.**"

"Listen, you fucking _prat_. If you don't tell me _right now_..."

"Fine, fine. We'll tell you what we know..."

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

When Deidara woke up, he found that Sasori hadn't been kidding when he said he'd feel like shit. It was kind of like having a hang-over...just, without the joy of getting drunk the night before. The lights in his room that had seemed dim earlier that day now attacked his eyes like daggers, and his head felt like it was going to explode as soon as he moved it. Which was why he'd stayed as perfectly still as humanly possible. Head explosions and surgery wounds didn't mix, as far as he was concerned. But, after about five minutes of staring at the ceiling, he realized there was no hope of falling back asleep, and he was quickly growing bored.

He sat up as slowly as he could, cursing fluently the entire way. Now, not only was the gaping wound in his side sending little shoots of liquid fire down his nerves, but the entire left side of his face was killing him, his head was pounding, and somehow that poison Sasori gave him made all the other minor cuts and half-healed wounds ache even more. He felt a little worse than shit, he decided. Of course, what could he call that? What was worse than shit?

With some struggle, he crossed his legs, and a frowning, almost occupied look crossed his face. It was a pointless thing to think about, but with his entire body hurting, Deidara would grasp at any thread of thought to take his mind off his situation.

A hand absently reached up to touch the bandages wrapped around his face. Deidara hadn't spoken to Sasori yet, since he hadn't been in the room when he'd awoken, so he didn't know exactly how the surgery went. Sasori's tools were still there, he noticed, on the table by the bed. So he must have just left recently. He hadn't even bothered to clean up his precious knives and gadgets. Sasori never left things messy, though. What if he...

The wounds were all bandaged, and nothing hurt more than it should, but what if Sasori had broken down after it? After seeing what he'd done to Deidara? It would help him fight, but there was no guarantee Sasori would be able to make himself realize that. Or maybe Deidara was over-worrying. But the look in Sasori's eyes, before he'd started-

Deidara shook his head sharply, to make himself stop thinking about that kind of thing. A blinding white pain exploded behind his eyes because of the movement, and he cried out in pain before falling over. He was on his side this time, glaring blearily at the door. Tears were in his one visible eye, and he sniffed pathetically. He could handle the battlefield. He could handle being stabbed and slashed and attacked with weird jutsu that could kill him. He could handle fighting with those wounds, until he won. But what he couldn't take was being bedridden with injuries, because that made him think about the pain and how much he didn't like it.

The door opened. Deidara blinked, and sat up half-way, ignoring the new wave of pain that brought on. Sasori walked in, carrying a bowl, a rag, and a few rolls of bandages. He stopped short when he realized Deidara was awake, blinked, then continued walking to the bed. He looked as stoic and unexcited as he always did.

"How'd it go, yeah?" Deidara asked, lying back down on the bed as Sasori sat next to him.

"The surgery? Fine. Once the skin heals I'll attach the lens. But the bandages on your other wounds need to be changed. Sit up." His voice was very business-like, Deidara decided. Entirely inappropriate for bedside manners.

But, regardless of his older partner's manners, Deidara sat up obediently. He shifted around a few times, trying to find a position that didn't make seven different places on his body scream in protest, and finally gave up. He settled down, and held still as Sasori began undoing the cloth wrapped around his abdomen. It fell away, revealing the ugly remnants of the wound that had threatened his life. There was still blood slowly seeping from it, which couldn't be a good thing.

Sasori threw the bandages into a heap on the floor, and dipped the rag into the bowl he'd been carrying. The water was steaming and it was slightly cloudy. It also smelt funny. Deidara pointed to it.

"What's that, yeah?"

The puppet master wrung the rag out over the bowl as he responded. "An herbal mix. One of the few that I learned in Suna."

Then, without the least bit of hesitation, Sasori began cleaning out the wound. Deidara squeaked, and felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end with the sudden pain. He bit his tongue to keep from complaining, but it only worked for a few seconds.

"Oooow- ow- ow- ow-"

"Stop whining."

"But Sasori-danna-"

"Stop. Whining."

Deidara blinked back tears and watched Sasori work. It hurt like hell, but he really wasn't doing anything bad to the wound. It must have been the herbal water he was putting on it that stung. He was being thorough, but Deidara was worried about the fact that it was still bleeding. Only very slowly, granted, but it had been what...two days since the battle? Deidara sighed and let Sasori work. At least he knew what he was doing. It took an excruciatingly long amount of time, but eventually Sasori sat back and dropped the rag into the bowl.

"I should have stitched it." The blond heard Sasori murmur, almost to himself. "It isn't healing like this."

At the thought of yet another surgery, Deidara instantly began whining. He didn't want _another_ hangover- this one was bad enough! "Isn't there anything else you can do, yeah?"

"Perhaps. It may heal on its own, if you keep still enough." Sasori said quietly, looking at the wound. The glint in his eyes made Deidara wonder if the fact that he hadn't stitched it was really all that was bothering Sasori.

Abruptly, the puppet master grabbed the roll of bandages and began redressing the wound. Of course, with the wound on his side, Sasori had to reach all the way around Deidara to bandage him. Despite the lingering stinging of the wound, and the pounding in his head, the former Iwa nin found it very hard to be miserable with Sasori so close to him. He also found it very hard to think straight. Every time the puppet master leaned forward their shoulders would touch, and if Sasori breathed, Deidara was pretty sure he'd feel his breath on his bare chest.

The moment was over before it had a chance to begin, much to Deidara's disappointment. Sasori stood soon after bandaging him- and Deidara was sure Sasori had been hurrying. He couldn't have done the job that fast if he'd been taking his time. But regardless of Deidara's opinion, Sasori stood and placed the now smaller roll of bandages onto the bedside table. Desperate for some kind of contact with Sasori, Deidara blurted out the first thing that came to his mind.

"I'm hungry, yeah."

...Well, _that_ was going to work.

Sasori paused, and looked down at Deidara. After a moment of silence, Sasori picked up the bowl of water and turned to go to the door. "I'll go see what's in the kitchens."

Deidara reached out and grabbed the sleeve of Sasori's coat before he even thought about the action. The puppet master turned to him, with a confused and annoyed look on his face. Deidara smiled, and Sasori grew even more confused. He decided, looking up at the confused puppet master, that he was oddly cute when he had no idea what was going on. Sasori was giving this look that he supposed was meant to be a pretty angry and imposing glare, but he just looked flustered to Deidara. If possible, the blond grinned even wider and moved his grip to hold onto Sasori's collar. He dragged the puppet master down by his coat, so their eyes were level. Deidara's pleasant smile turned into that little devious smirk he always got when he was about to win a fight, and their lips met. Sasori's eyes widened impossibly as he grunted in surprise, and by his hand motions Deidara could tell he was trying not to spill the bowl of water.

Deidara wasn't sure if he could call the experience pleasant, per say, because the lips his found were made of the same strange, cold, skin-like material the rest of Sasori was made of. It made the wood that truly made up his body seem more like flesh, but it sure as hell wasn't pleasing to the touch. But even if Sasori was a bad kisser- and really too shocked to respond to Deidara in any way- it was still fulfilling in a way he hadn't been expecting. Like he'd been waiting for that moment for longer than he could remember, and just hadn't known it.

When he pulled back and released the collar of Sasori's jacket, the puppet master was almost hesitant to pull back as well. That pleased him almost as much as the kiss had, and considering the bewildered look on Sasori's face was more amusing than any other expression he'd seen thus far, Deidara figured the endeavor was all-around successful, considering it had all been on impulse.

Sasori grunted, still looking flustered and confused, and walked out of the room without another word. But Deidara saw the look he shot over his shoulder, cementing Deidara's assumption that Sasori had liked that.

Snickering to himself, Deidara lay back down, thinking that being injured and bed-ridden may not be so bad after all. Of course, the pounding in his head made him re-think that idea.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: So. I had way too much fun writing this chapter. Actually, I'm getting the feeling that this next story arc is going to be way too much fun. It's going to last for a while, and it may be the last arc of the story. I haven't decided yet- I originally began this story thinking to run it all the way up to where they are introduced in the manga, but I'll have to see how it goes. But don't worry, just because this may be the last story arc, this fic isn't ending anytime soon.

Review?

Chapter 11

Sasori sighed as the door to Deidara's room clicked shut behind him. He leaned against it for a moment, staring blankly at the opposing wall of the white hall. Slowly he let a hand wander up and gently brush his lips.

Well, that had been...unexpected. It seemed that even being almost fatally injured and operated on wasn't enough to keep Deidara from getting into mischief. Sometimes he wondered why he still put up with the boy.

Sasori began walking down the deserted hall, a small grin curving his normally cold lips. He didn't even notice the expression as he walked into the kitchen. The nerves that he'd managed to keep alive around his mouth to aid in speech were dulled at best- he'd been barely able to feel that kiss- but still, it had been...startling. Better than Sasori had thought physical contact could be. Better that he remembered it to be.

The sound of snickering dragged Sasori from his thoughts. With a start he realized he'd already gotten out a pan and a few packs of that instant ramen food that Leader picked up Kami-knew-where. Sasori frowned and turned from the stove to find Hidan sitting at the low-rising table. Itachi was in the corner with a cup of tea as well, but he was as silent as always.

Sasori leveled a glare at Hidan. The superior grin the white-haired man was wearing scraped against Sasori's pride in a way that he wasn't in the mood to deal with.

"Just come from Deidara's room?" Hidan asked with a knowing, amused look in his eyes.

"That doesn't concern you." Sasori murmured, then turned back to the stove.

"Look, he even has you cooking him dinner. Must really be a good lay, if-"

Sasori fell still, his hand still on the handle of the pan before him. His eyes were still peacefully on the boiling water, but there was something in his stance that shifted. Something that became dangerous, and almost protective. Feral. What Hidan was saying, was he was suggesting- Deidara was no _toy_. And Sasori hoped he didn't think he was going to get away with something like that.

"Hidan. Quiet. No one wants to hear your voice."

Sasori blinked, but didn't turn from the counter. That had been Itachi's voice. His frown deepened- since when did Itachi get involved in anything? But the quiet, stable tone was enough to make Sasori forget about punishing Hidan. The rage faded, to an extent, and whatever had changed in his stance relaxed. Well, the Uchiha had just saved the 'immortal' from becoming one of his puppets. A talking puppet would be annoying, anyway. What was the use of one if it could have no stealth?

A shuffle from behind him told Sasori that Hidan had stood.

"Yeah, well you guys are all boring, anyway."

As Hidan's footsteps faded slowly down the hall, a silence settled on the room. Sasori placed the chunks of dried noodles into the water as it boiled.

"Leader isn't going to be pleased, if you two become even more attached." Itachi stated. It weighed heavily in the air, undoubtedly true.

Sasori stirred the noodles. Such a mundane task suddenly seemed like the most wonderful of distractions. "I know."

"You'd willingly defy him?"

"In this case? Yes."

Itachi stood silently, and Sasori just barely caught his form out of the corner of his eye. He thought he also heard Itachi murmur 'good', but he could have been mistaken. That would mean Itachi was pleased that Sasori was defying what Leader wanted, and what reason did the Uchiha have to be happy about that? It wasn't even any of his direct business.

Sasori's frown deepened even further as he finished making the ramen, throwing the pan into the sink without washing it. Someone else could take care of it.

Sasori stopped himself short just as he began walking out of the empty kitchen. What was he doing? He hadn't made food in _years_. He'd never gone out of his way to help anyone since he turned himself into a puppet. He hadn't had to eat since becoming a puppet. Was he really doing all this to please a child? The term seemed strange to him, though. Suddenly odd, misplaced. Child? Was Deidara really that young? Granted, his minor by years, but...

He seemed older than that, somehow. All of a sudden, Sasori couldn't place him as a 'child' anymore. Maybe that kiss had changed more than he'd originally thought.

But more than the word child not fitting any longer, was the answer that he knew he possessed to the question. _Was_ he doing this for a child? He knew the answer, but what puzzled him was that he didn't regret any of it.

Sasori shook his head, grabbed the bowl of ramen, and just as he decided that he'd figure out things eventually, a figure standing in the doorway caught his eye. A shadowed figure, features barely discernible, Sasori knew the Leader well enough to tell it was him, even if he was hiding in the shadows. The man seemed to be hiding more often than not, anyway. He couldn't help but wonder why, really. Deep in the base of his own organization, there was nothing to keep secret.

"Sasori, there's some news you should probably be aware of. Come to my office, will you?"

Frowning, Sasori glanced down to the bowl sitting in his wooden hand, then nodded to the hall he'd been about to walk down. "I was bringing food to Deidara."

The Leader sighed, then gestured almost lazily. "Alright, bring the food to the boy. But don't take too long."

The man disappeared, and Sasori exhaled before making his way to Deidara's room. He really hoped this wasn't going to be about the attachment he had to his younger partner. He wasn't up for dealing with something like that so soon- especially when he was still feeling so fragile from that surgery. The resounding strands of the stress that had been on his psyche were still muddling his thought, enough to make withstanding the Leader like that more effort than it was worth.

Sasori walked into Deidara's room less than a minute later, not bothering to knock. Deidara didn't look surprised at the lack of formalities either- he glanced up calmly when his partner walked in, a little clay something-or-other sitting in his palm. With that almost legendary short attention span, Sasori wasn't surprised that he'd picked up something to entertain himself with while he waited. He may have no longer been a child in Sasori's mind, but that didn't mean he didn't still act like one.

"Sasori-danna!"

The excitement in his blue eye as Deidara fixed his gaze on the bowl of food in Sasori's hand was almost enough to make the Puppet Master smile. His younger partner was so easily pleased, it was charming. If Sasori had been anyone else, he would have thought cute. But cute wasn't even in Sasori's vocabulary. So 'charming' it was, as he walked to the bed Deidara lay on and set the bowl in the blond's lap. The second Sasori handed Deidara a pair of chopsticks he began eating, just about swallowing the bowl whole.

Sasori found himself hesitating to leave. Deidara's attention was solely on the food, so it was probably Sasori's best chance for a quiet exit, but he didn't want to. The Leader wanted to see him- was going to address the Deidara issue almost certainly- and Sasori was in no hurry to get there. But that wasn't the reason why Sasori was hesitating, and even he realized it. Even doing something as typical as eating, Deidara drew his eyes. Fascinated him. His expressions, his movements, it was like they were all new to him.

Maybe he really was falling for this brat. Watching someone and enjoying it as much as he did was _not_ normal- even by his standards.

With a great deal of determination and resignation, Sasori tore his eyes from Deidara and headed to the door. It felt like he'd been staring for hours, but in reality Deidara hadn't even gotten half-way through the ramen, so it couldn't have been more than a few seconds. Time seemed to wind itself in knots when he was so lost in thought like he was. He frowned- somehow he'd ended up smiling during that time with Deidara- and made his was to Leader's office.

Xxxxxxxxx

"...what...?"

"We caught a spy. Or an assassin. We aren't sure- Kisame killed him before we could interrogate the man. But he was from Iwa, and he was in Deidara's room." Leader stated heavily.

"Where...was I? When this happened."

The Leader paused, then continued, as if hesitant. "It was right after you tried to turn him into a puppet."

Sasori felt a little bit numb. And this shouldn't have been much of a change from what he normally felt like, but it was different, somehow. Cold, a numbing cold and a kind of dread and apprehension as he sensed the truth hang over him like some kind of blade. "...and?"

"I sent Zetsu to Iwa to investigate. He couldn't find much on the matter, which is surprising. But it seems there's something there, in your partner's home village, that's being hidden so well that not even Zetsu can sniff it out. Deidara has more strings attached than he's told us about." The Leader's voice was monotone, but there was something under that fake, authoritative voice...something that had Sasori on edge, despite the cold that had suddenly wrapped around him. It sounded like worry. Worry and anger.

"And you want me to force information out of him..." Sasori's voice sounded kind of hollow, even to his own ears. Distant. This was all so strange...Deidara, keeping secrets? Since when was his idiot of a partner ever able to keep _anything_ quiet?

"Not force." The Leader corrected. "Get what you can. And if that doesn't work, I'll do the forcing."

That didn't help the cold that was burrowing its way into Sasori's chest. The unnatural sensation of sudden feeling, even though he wasn't supposed to feel anything at all. Leader's interrogations...they never ended with the interrogated being left alive. And that notion wasn't something that Sasori could wrap his mind around right now. He'd just recovered from almost loosing Deidara once- and just barely recovered, at that. He wasn't ready to let _anything_ threaten Deidara's life yet. But...Sasori could also see where the Leader was coming from on this. With an almost surgical clarity, he knew the importance of the information.

He hated that clarity almost more than he hated the clouded panic he'd fallen into after he brought Deidara back from the mission. For once, he didn't _want_ to think, because that meant knowing what would happen if Deidara didn't tell him what they needed to know. And Sasori wasn't sure what he'd do, if that happened. But he knew as things stood, he wouldn't let something like that happen. He wouldn't stand by and wait as Deidara was tortured to death.

Sasori turned, to walk out of the office. His movements were even stiffer than normal, and the Leader must have picked up on that. He didn't see why the man wouldn't. He knew the impact of everything he did; he knew what his words had just done. And the Leader would go through with it anyway, because Deidara could be a liability, and the Akatsuki had no liabilities. None at all.

"Sasori, don't take too long. I don't want to be left waiting." The Leader said in his wake, as Sasori opened the office door. He shut it firmly behind him, and walked as fast as he could from that forsaken room.

The hallway to Deidara's room seemed painfully long and impossibly short all at once. Maybe it was because he couldn't decide if he wanted to see that blond head, the blue eye and the arrogant grin aimed his way, or if he wanted to sit and stare at one of the many white walls of the hallway. He wanted to see Deidara, make sure he was all right, but at the same time seeing him meant asking him the question. Maybe it was paranoia, that Sasori wanted to see his partner so badly, but Deidara was injured and the entire Akatsuki was possibly now against him. Them. Because Sasori wouldn't let Deidara face those odds alone. If Deidara couldn't tell him what he asked, then Sasori would stand beside him against the full wrath of the organization they were once part of.

Yes, that sounded right. It felt right. To come to the stony conclusion that nothing could force him to go against his younger partner.

But...if he walked into that room, he was going to have to ask Deidara about his past. About what connections he still had, and he knew how bad pasts could get. Sasori couldn't sympathize right now, though. He didn't think he was really capable of it, in the first place, but right now he was trying to keep Deidara alive. And to keep him alive, he had to get information out of the boy. According to the Leader, he wasn't supposed to force it out, but being forced by his partner was a hell of a lot better than being tortured by their leader. Even if Deidara was angry with him for it, he decided. If Deidara couldn't tell him, he'd stand by the blond, but he would push as hard as possible to get what he needed to know.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

The sound of flesh hitting clay was the only thing that cut through the silence that had befallen the room. Deidara had long finished eating, his empty bowl sitting off to the side on his nightstand a testament to that. He'd begun occupying himself with throwing a simple ball of clay up and down on the bed while he lay on it, but the action had long since ceased to be entertaining. Now it was more...hypnotic, than anything else. It flew up, hit its peak, then fell back to his hand with a startling steadiness and rhythm that was more reassuring than he'd thought a simple ball of clay could manage. And since when did he need any reassurances?

Deidara frowned, caught the ball of clay, and crushed it in his fist. The silence in the room became complete, and he stared at the mass of moldable clay that once was a perfect little sphere. He didn't need anything to comfort him. He didn't need comfort. He was an S-ranked missing nin, a warrior of the Akatsuki. He was fine on his own, he didn't need anything to help him feel better. Sure, there were things he enjoyed doing, and things he liked that he couldn't just make appear on his own. But those were amusements. He didn't _need_ any of them.

Like Sasori. He'd long come to the conclusion that he loved the puppet master, but he was just a distraction. All of it- this working for the Akatsuki, trying to take over the world, working his art, bothering Sasori...it was all for the sheer distraction of it. To make himself feel happier, and take his mind of the world. Right? He didn't _need _it.

Why was he so melancholy?

With a bit of a struggle, Deidara sat up, and looked at the floor in front of his bed for maybe the fourth or fifth time in the past five minutes. There, on the hard floor, was the faintest little dark smudge. Almost unnoticeable. But he knew what it was- any ninja that saw it would. It was blood. That shouldn't have worried him. It could have been blood from the surgery- Sasori had cut open his face, after all. That was bound to leave some blood. But Deidara was not a fool.

He knew where that blood had come from. He could just about _smell_ the jutsu the man had used to get into the room. Kisame or someone must have killed the man before he'd been able to do anything, but he knew who it had been. An envoy from Iwa. They'd found him. It had taken them almost a year and a half now, but they'd found him.

So that was why he had to remind himself that he didn't need anything here, in the Akatsuki. That everything he'd been doing up until now had been a mere amusement, and experiment. He wasn't really _dependent_ on any of it. The routine running about at Leader's command, the terse voice of Sasori when he'd done something overly dangerous. The base here, with Kisame and the rest of the Akatsuki, the room that had slowly become his home after a year. Sasori's bedroom, and the room a little further down the hall that he used to work in. The smell of grease and wood and metal, the smell of clay that had slowly instilled itself as well after Deidara had spent enough time just bugging his partner there. The stupid contests he would have with Kisame when they were both at the base, and bored. The troubles he'd overcame while he was here, the missions that had nearly taken his life. The battles he'd fought, and the realizations he'd made. None of it _mattered_.

Whoever had found the envoy would have gone to Leader. Maybe Leader himself was the one to catch the little spy. He'd be wanting answers. Answers that were far too complicated to give, without giving a life story as well. He'd have to leave, before they cornered him too far. Tonight, maybe. His wounds wouldn't like something like that, but he'd managed. He'd managed before. And what was one more pursuer on his tail, when the Akatsuki found him gone?

Deidara's eye shut and he told his heart it was being ridiculous as it pounded in his chest. He scrounged around for the carefree, cruel attitude he knew he possessed, knowing that would be his way out. He'd leave the Akatsuki wearing a careless smirk, and move on. He'd find another way to get money. That had been his original purpose, hadn't it? Money. It wasn't that hard to obtain. So he'd leave as soon as he could manage, and not return. He'd do his best to stay ahead of the Akatsuki, in case they wanted him dead for running, and most of all avoid ever seeing Sasori again in his life. Once he left, he didn't think he'd be able to keep it up if he saw those dark brown eyes again.

The bed creaked under him as Deidara stood. His head spun and his wounds ached as he did so, but after a few moments he regained enough of his balance to walk. And that was all he needed to move. The pain would become dulled after a while, once he got used to it. It always did. With his lips set in a stern line, Deidara walked over to his dresser, where he'd kept the clothes that were not of Akatsuki origin. He'd taken care to keep a few normal outfits, just in case something like this came up. Or, if he had to go undercover somewhere. He'd honestly thought the undercover use would come before the go-on-the-run would, but it seemed he wasn't that fortunate.

Of course he wasn't. He'd been a fool to ever think he could possibly stay somewhere for this long.

With careful movements, Deidara began packing away clothes into the cloth bag he kept for missions. There were already emergency supplies in the bag- those were necessary for any mission lasting more than a day- so all he needed were the clothes, and the other little knickknacks that he bothered to keep around. The few outfits he owned were packed away in seconds, with a depressingly efficient determination. He set the bag on the floor with a misted eye, and looked up to the top of the dresser, where he kept most of his other belongings. There wasn't much...a few sculptures he was particularly proud of, a wooden hand from one of Sasori's puppets that he'd stolen...and a picture frame, without a picture. Just a dark, wooden picture frame. The white background seemed to be the purest thing in his room, with nothing to interrupt its uniformity.

He grabbed that picture frame first. He let his fingers run over the semi-smooth wood once before he packed that in along with his clothes. Then, he placed the sculptures into the bag. The last thing he removed from the hardwood surface was the puppet hand. It hadn't really been a gift from Sasori, considering he'd stolen it, but it was the closest thing he had to one. He didn't think Sasori understood the concept of gifts, and what they could do. But, then again, Sasori had never tried to get the hand back. He'd seen it, Deidara was sure. It was sitting out in the open. But he'd never even asked about it. So maybe it _was_ a gift.

He smiled, sadly, as he placed the hand into the bag as well. It would be the last little piece of Sasori he'd ever have as his own. He'd make sure to take good care of it, unlike the rest of his few belongings.

With the only slightly heavy travel pack over his shoulder, Deidara walked back over to the bed to grab the bag he kept full of clay. He remembered to tug on a shirt before strapping the bag onto his thigh, realizing quite belatedly that he wasn't wearing one. He tucked a few kunai away, just in case, and found himself ready to go. It had taken him all of five minutes to pack away his life, and be ready to leave what he'd come to cherish behind. Ninja weren't supposed to cherish much, especially criminals like these that he'd been living among, but...it was somewhere to live. He'd found his place here, unlike Iwa, unlike any of the countries he'd been to since leaving his place of birth.

But he'd have to leave this place behind him. He'd done it before, though leaving had never been quite this hard. He let out a deep sigh, and felt something break a little as he forced a smirk onto his face. A small, pulsing pain had decided it deserved residence in his chest, and his eye was burning a little. He would be fine. If he gave it a little while, both sensations would go away.

A steady smirk on his face and an unreadable look in his eye, Deidara was ready to go. He went to turn from his bed, head to the door-

"Deidara...?"

And he stopped in his tracks.

His smirk faltered and Deidara felt the world fall out from under him as he turned to face Sasori in the doorway. The look in his partner's eyes was the kind of shock of a child who has witnessed their parents killed, or house burned to the ground. Some kind of tragedy, so large and inescapable that there was no way to overcome it unscathed.

"What...what are you doing...?"

The determination to leave breaking from him with every second that passed, Deidara closed his eye and leaned his head back. He felt something suspiciously wet fall down the side of his face and find its way down his neck as he faced the ceiling unseeingly. A grin curved his lips; a pale, broken shadow of the confident smirk he normally wore. The expression of a man heading to his execution, the smile of a man who accepted that.

"Hello, Sasori."

He couldn't leave. He'd been a fool to think it. So this place would be his grave.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Woah...I wrote this wicked fast. I'm not quite sure how. I've had good amount of free time in the past few days, though, so that helped. That and the fact that this chapter was actually wicked fun to write. Despite what it seems like in this chapter, I do really love Leader. He's a great character, he just happens to be in a rather unlucky position in this fic.

As to Deidara's past, I apologize right now for having to add in OCs. But, Kishimoto has decided not to tell us _anything_ about his past, so I had to make up a lot of it. Well, more like all of it.

Also note that one of the main concepts in my mind as I wrote this was to remind everyone that the Akatsuki are really s-ranked, jaded nin- not a bunch of caring pansies. Just thought I'd mention that.

Now, on to the chapter!

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Chapter 12

"Tell me who that man was, Deidara."

"Y'know, it'd be a hell of a lot simpler saying no if you got rid of these shackles, yeah."

"It'd be a hell of a lot simpler if you just _told_ me."

"Aw, Leader's getting angry, yeah."

Deidara would have laughed, but the back of the leader's hand struck his cheek with enough force to make the room spin. It didn't hurt any more than the past dozen or so punches and kicks had hurt, so it didn't really faze him at this point. He spit onto the ground next to him, getting the blood out of his mouth, and gave the leader an arrogant little smirk.

They were in a room behind the leader's office. It was dark- probably darker than necessary- and it smelled almost unbearably musty. Old blood, metal, and rot mixed to make the air heavier than air had a right being, and gave the place the unique little atmosphere of a torture room. And technically, that's what it was. An 'interrogation' room, but it was common knowledge what interrogation meant to a ninja. With his hands in shackles anchored to the ceiling, arms forced above his head, and blood oozing out of puncture wounds in several areas that he didn't bother to count, Deidara didn't expect to ever leave this room. There was a table off to the side, where there was a line of tools that the leader kept almost impeccably clean. Half of the reason that he never expected to leave the room, he knew eventually he was going to get to know those tools quite well.

In the silence that followed the sharp crack of the backhand, the faint sound of feet moving across a stone floor floated in from the leader's office. So Sasori was still waiting out there. Kind of like a lost puppy, in a way. It would have been funny if Deidara didn't know Sasori was standing out there to plot a way to attack the leader and get him out. His partner was predictable enough for Deidara to guess his train of thought to be somewhere along those lines. 'Go against the entire Akatsuki to break Deidara out then run like hell'.

"So? You're a valuable member, Deidara. I don't want to have to leave permanent damage. Just tell me. It'll make everything easier. I'll get you down, we can talk, and then I'll let you go back and rest in your room. I'll have Kisame and Itachi deal with the problem, and we can all forget this." The leader crooned. Deidara hadn't known the man could sound that kind and forgiving.

A thought that happy and peaceful almost made him puke.

"I think you're getting soft, yeah. Would I get milk and cookies for being a good boy, too?"

There was a sharp movement and Deidara expected another punch from the leader, probably on one of the darker bruises on his shoulder from earlier hits. But what he got was far worse than just punching a bruise. Agony tore through him as the leader struck the still very sore and almost-open wound on his side, the force of the hit probably tearing open the stitches Sasori had put in. He couldn't bite back the yelp of pain, but did clench his teeth shut to keep it from turning into a scream.

The shuffling outside in the office stopped abruptly. Deidara would have noticed it if he'd been in any position to think around the pain.

"This is your last chance. I'll send Sasori in, so you don't even have to talk to me." The leader snarled. "But if you don't say anything now, don't expect to live."

"How kind." Deidara murmured, the haze of biting pain receding some.

He didn't pay attention to the leader's retreating back as he walked out of the room- or the faint murmurs from the room beyond. He glanced down at the now open wound in his side, and stared with a grim blue eye at the blood slowly blossoming across his dark blue shirt. It had gone through the bandages in seconds, then. The leader had really torn it good. Sighing, he glanced up and stared at the chains holding him in the center of the room. There were inscriptions on the metal that suppressed chakra, so he couldn't just use a teleportation jutsu to get out. And the metal itself looked pretty solid...no weak links that would break after enough pulling.

For something that he didn't use very often, the leader's interrogation room was in pretty good shape.

He heard the door close. That was what had him looking down, and meeting Sasori's stormy brown eyes. Stormy...that was an understatement. It was closer to violent, jagged. Like a fault line after an earthquake. Water in a hurricane. Mountains, with a backdrop of a blizzard. It occurred to him that he was being oddly poetic, equating Sasori to nature like that. He had a feeling the pain was starting to mess with his head. Hell, they weren't even started with the interrogation yet. It seemed it was going to be harder to be stubborn than he'd thought.

"Deidara..."

Sasori didn't even ask him to say anything. He had once already, back in the room when he'd been caught trying to leave. Sasori had asked there, and Deidara hadn't responded. He'd never outright refused, because he didn't think he could do that, but he'd stayed silent. And it seemed Leader had been listening in after all, because after a minute of silence he'd barged into the room and dragged Deidara here. Sasori hadn't been able to do anything to stop it, and he had the feeling that was what had the puppet master as upset as he appeared to be. The fact that he couldn't save his younger partner from the leader they had both, at one point or another, trusted.

Or maybe that wasn't it. Deidara didn't know, and at this point, he figured it didn't matter much.

Arms wrapped around his waist, carefully avoiding the reopened wound just above his hipbone. It was oddly comforting, and even with his arms bound above his head, it still felt like an embrace. Their first, if Deidara was correct. It figured it would probably be their last.

Deidara had never noticed the height difference between them. But there was enough of one that he found he could rest his head comfortably on top of Sasori's, even though the man was older than he. He found the notion oddly amusing, but a lot of what was going on right now was funny. Maybe he was in shock or something.

"I'm not going to let him do this to you, Deidara." Sasori said after a moment of strained silence. "None of them have any _right_ to touch you."

"You're starting to get overprotective, Sasori-danna." Deidara snickered, but the effort ended up being too much for the wounds. He could feel the one on his back slowly tearing open as well now, and the one on his thigh was stinging. "You should know I can take care of myself, yeah."

"If you could take care of yourself, you wouldn't _be_ here, Deidara. You'd be in your bed recovering. Or better yet, you wouldn't have to recover because you wouldn't have any _wounds_." Sasori's glare could melt stone, but the anger wasn't directed at him. It was directed at everything that had put him where he was, chained and bleeding.

"I know." Deidara murmured, and let his eyes lower, downcast. He knew that he shouldn't be withholding what he was. But he couldn't retell what they were asking of him. There had been a reason, beyond just his art, that he'd left Iwa. There was a reason for the hands in his palms, and his obsession with art. He'd done his best to ignore all that, though. He'd done his best to convince himself that it had been his own whimsy to leave Iwa; that he hadn't really _had_ to go. And most of the time, he believed it. But now...now the leader was trying to force something out of him that he wasn't quite willing to recall.

"You really can't tell me, can you..." Sasori relented, and rested his forehead against Deidara's neck. "We're going to have to run, then. I'll get you out of here, and we'll both disappear for long enough-"

"I don't think measures _quite_ that desperate are called for. Do you, Deidara?"

Deidara felt the contact with Sasori break as the puppet master stepped back in shock. Brown eyes, along with a single blue, focused on the third occupant of the room. It seemed the leader had slipped in, unnoticed. It figured he could manage something like that. The shadows hid his face, so Deidara couldn't see his expression, but from the sound of his voice, he knew the man was smug. As if he'd just won some kind of victory.

"You'll tell us, Deidara. I can see it in your eyes. You don't want to put Sasori through something like that, do you? Loosing you would push him off the deep end." The arrogance in the man's voice was almost enough to make Deidara flat-out refuse what the he'd said. But the words struck a truth so deep that he couldn't deny it. He _didn't_ want to put Sasori through this.

Though the rage-filled glare Sasori graced the leader with was almost enough to make him believe Sasori would be okay. That his psyche was strong enough to take the hit. He knew it was just wishful thinking, but it was something to hope for. Because he wasn't planning on telling.

When he was greeted by silence, the leader sighed and stepped forward. It was Sasori, not Deidara that flinched when the leader grabbed the hem of Deidara's shirt and pulled it up enough to reveal the bandages covering his torn wound. Then, slowly, methodically, the leader began removing those bandages. Strip by strip of bloody white cloth.

"Leader, what are you-"

"Quiet, Sasori. Just stay put and watch, and I'm sure everything will go well." The leader murmured. He was close enough to Deidara's side that he could practically feel the deep baritone rumble through him. He resisted the urge to kick the man in the face.

By the time the leader had unsheathed a kunai and was resting a thumb against its tip- probably to test its sharpness- Deidara was wondering what exactly the man had meant by 'well'. Certainly not well for _him_, and if things weren't going well for Deidara, he didn't really see how they were supposed to go well for Sasori either. He was a couple seconds away from just dubbing the man either as insane as Zetsu or having smoked a little too much of those foreign drugs.

He noticed that the leader's thumb wasn't bleeding. The kunai wasn't sharp. Then, with a great amount of methodical efficiency in his movements, the leader shoved the kunai hilt-deep into the open wound on Deidara's side.

And if he'd thought the strike to that wound earlier had hurt, this was an ocean compared to a pond.

"F-_Fuck!_" Deidara gasped, screwing his eye shut.

There had to be something _on_ that kunai, because normal stabs didn't hurt that much. Not even with dull weapons. Of course, at the time he couldn't manage that much coherent thought, but he realized it after. Some kind of poison, or mild acid, or _something_. Something to make the open wound on his side feel like something hotter than liquid fire as it was opened further and flesh that was trying to heal was shredded. His own breathing was so ragged that he could barely hear anything above it, and his heartbeat pounded in his ears to drown out any other sound. It didn't seem like it should be so loud, but it let him pretend he didn't hear Sasori call out his name, so he wasn't complaining. He didn't need to hear Sasori's voice, and with his eyes closed, he couldn't see the look on Sasori's face, either.

Sometimes ignorance _was_ bliss. Especially when he knew his resolve would crumble for a second time if that ignorance wasn't there. He wasn't going to give up what the leader wanted to know. _He wasn't going to_. But the pain he _knew_ would be in Sasori's eyes was warring with that conviction. Would he take on something worse than the kunai embedded in his side to keep Sasori from seeing this? To keep him from knowing?

"Open your eyes, Deidara." The leader's voice commanded, floating in just above the noise of his own breathing.

Deidara didn't respond. He focused on real, tactile sensations, other than that burning acid-like pain. The feel of cold metal pulling at his wrists, the slight ache in his shoulders from standing like he was for so long. As long as he didn't obey that command and open his eyes, he'd be fine.

"Open them!"

"_Bite_ me, yeah." Deidara spat, and turned his head from where he knew Sasori was standing. Facing the wall opposite where the leader was.

A ragged scream cut through the air as the leader shoved the kunai in deeper, and moved it so it was now at an angle. His throat stung by the time he stopped to suck in air through his clenched teeth, not raw quite yet but on the road to getting there. Any deeper and the leader was going to hit something vital; Deidara was sure of it. If he was lucky it'd be a lung; he'd die faster with a wound like that. But he was too low to hit a lung, he'd end up puncturing his liver or something.

"_Open your eyes!_"

The command was accented by the kunai being rotated again, now angled downward. Deidara flinched back from it, but he managed to bite his tongue and hold back another scream. He wouldn't open his eyes. He _wouldn't_. He refused to let his guilt overcome his selfishness. He'd lived for himself his entire life, he wasn't going to stop now.

A sharp sting on the side of his bruised face told him the leader had punched him again. He tasted blood in his mouth, but the pain of a bitten tongue and a swollen cheek was more welcome than the burn of the kunai moving in his side. It was still there, impaled in his now fully open wound, but at least it wasn't moving. Cold fingers took hold of his chin, and forced his head back in the direction of where the leader was standing. The movement was so fast it wrenched his neck, and he knew it was going to be sore for the next week. Assuming he lived past that night.

"Deidara, this is ridiculous. I dragged Sasori in here because I thought you cared enough for him to tell me the information I want to know. If this is just going to turn into an interrogation, I'll have him leave, and I'll get serious." The leader paused. Deidara obviously couldn't see the expression on his face past the comforting black of his eyelid, but it sounded like he'd paused in thought. "It seemed I was wrong in even keeping the two of you partnered, if you really don't care for him. I don't want to have Sasori get attached to someone who will cast him away so simply."

The leader had moved, now. Stepped in front of him, between himself and Sasori. "...What a way to betray trust, Deidara. I have to hand it to you, even I never saw this one coming. Getting us all to believe you loved him, too."

Anger. The leader was trying to get him angry, and it was working. He clenched his jaw, controlled his breathing, and kept himself from responding. He was goading him to get Deidara to open his eyes. And he wasn't about to fall for it.

But then there was movement from behind the leader. It was Sasori. Deidara felt his stomach drop out and his blood suddenly chill- Sasori didn't _believe_ him, did he? He wouldn't believe the leader's lie...he wouldn't doubt his younger partner, would he? After everything they'd gone through together, he wouldn't think Deidara was so..._worthless_, to pull something like this because he didn't care...he _couldn't_.

...About a half hour ago, Deidara had been ready to leave the base, using that as an excuse. That he never really cared for Sasori seriously, and that he could leave quite easily. He'd had himself convinced, until Sasori had stepped through the door. So how could Sasori have confidence in him...when Deidara was capable of something like _that_?

And then Sasori's voice sounded through the room. It was that same tone, that same stunned, numb tone that he'd used in the room. The same tone he'd used that had managed to stop Deidara from running. "That...that isn't true."

He didn't sound like he believed himself.

That hurt more than the kunai had, than all the blows that the leader had landed on him combined. Sasori trusted the leader more than he trusted Deidara, he believed that Deidara didn't love him. And what was worse, what hurt the most, was that he had no way to prove it wrong. Nothing to say 'No, I do love you', and be credible. Show that it isn't just another lie.

No. He did. He had to stop this, and give the information that the leader wanted. Then, maybe, Sasori would believe him again.

He opened his single blue eye, the glare in it fiercer than any flame. "_Liar_." He spat, his burning gaze focused on the leader. "Cunning, annoying liar." He grunted, maybe some kind of subdued 'yeah', and sighed. "You want to know who the spy was? Fine. If you'll shut up, I'll tell you."

He didn't look at Sasori. He didn't think he could.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Whoever had invented painkillers was a saint. Nothing- absolutely _nothing_- was better than being numb. Antidotes to nerve-destroying poisons were also very welcome, but they didn't make the nerves forget they'd been damaged. Painkillers did. Of course, whatever had been in that brew the leader had handed to him five minutes after freeing him of the shackles had made him drowsy and rather happy as well, but those were just as appreciated. The pleasant fog over his mind helped him forget about his troubles, and why not all of the pain he felt had been numbed by the drugs.

'Nothing hurts like lost love'. He remembered someone telling him that, once. He couldn't quite remember who it had been, but he'd been young. So maybe it wasn't a surprise that he'd forgotten. Most of his memories from those few precious years were faint, though. All of it...it was just one giant blur of a pleasant happiness he'd long lost. To be honest, he didn't want the innocence back. It was annoying. But a few years ago, he would have argued that losing that innocence had been the worst moment in his life- a life full of agonizing moments and memories he'd rather not have. All ninja had them, of course. He just had the feeling that his were a bit worse than most.

He had to recount all that, didn't he...he'd agreed to do it. He was still in a bit of a shocked state that he had to put any of it into words. He'd never tried, not once. Well...he didn't have to retell all of it. He just had to explain who that spy had been. But explaining even that was going to bring back things he'd suppressed, and that was going to be hard. He'd live, though. He'd gone through it once. Going through a pale shadow of it in his mind wasn't going to be enough to kill him.

The leader had let him go back to his room to tell it. He'd gotten the wound on his side re-bandaged, and though he had an icepack sitting in his hand for the worst of the bruises, he couldn't find the strength to lift his hand to his face. Stitching the wound back up was going to have to wait until after the information was given, and Deidara was kind of thankful for that. He didn't want to go through another surgery quite yet. So, he was sitting listlessly on his bed, as far into the corner against the wall as he could go. He had a blanket draped over his shoulders, but it wasn't helping how cold he'd become, since leaving the leader's office.

He glanced up to the door as Sasori walked in. He'd heard voices outside his door for what seemed like hours, but apparently the leader was finally done giving Sasori directions. Probably what to take note of, and what were the most important details. Though he didn't see why Sasori needed to do a job like that; the leader had the room undoubtedly bugged. He'd be listening in.

His partner crossed the room slowly, and sat himself down in a chair next to the bed. Deidara averted his eyes, unable to meet Sasori's gaze. Shame, maybe? There was an apology to be made between them, but 'sorry' wasn't going to cut it. Perhaps after this tale, Deidara could find a way to make up to Sasori what he'd done.

"We're alone, now." Sasori said, after a few moments of silence. "You can begin whenever you want."

Deidara snorted, unable to laugh. The painkillers could only do so much to numb the pain of motion. "That's bull. Leader's listening in on this, yeah. There's no way he wouldn't."

Sasori shook his head slowly. "He's not. He trusts me to handle this, as an apology for what he had to do to you."

That _did_ have Deidara laughing, but he quickly regretted it. Sucking in air between his bared teeth, Deidara waited for the wave of pain to recede before speaking. His eyes were on the bed before him, looking at anything but Sasori. "How kind of him. I'll have to remember there are gift baskets after torture, next time it comes up, yeah."

"Deidara, I know this is hard for you." Sasori broke in. Normally, Deidara would have expected the puppet master to have been annoyed at his antics by now. There was not a trace of ill-temper in that patient tone, and in a way, that scared him. "But sarcasm isn't going to help you hide."

Deidara smiled, a resigned expression that was, for once, a sum of what was going on in his head. He wasn't covering anything with a grin, or a sneer. He wasn't concealing his thoughts like a good little ninja. For once, he didn't even try. Because for once, he didn't think he had to.

"So you want to know who the spy is, yeah." He began. "Well...unless Iwa has gone through some revolutionary change in the past few years, that spy was probably sent by my uncle, trying to track me down."

An easy, simple start. And it was all downhill from there.


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: So...this chapter is probably going to get rewritten at some point. I'm really unhappy with it, but I finally go so frustrated with it that I'm just going to post it, and see what you guys think of it. Once I hit another roadblock I'm probably going to come back to this and redo the whole telling of Deidara's past...-dies-

On another, less miserable note, we're almost at 200 reviews. That makes me insanely happy, considering this is one of the only fics I've ever really posted. That, and the fact that I'm going to be out of school in a couple weeks gives me the motivation and the time to do something different. I want you reviewers to suggest to me a one shot (preferably with Sasori and Deidara, but I'll do anyone in the Akatsuki) to write. Then, guess a number between 1 and 50. Whoever gets closest I'll write. The idea for a one shot could be just a hilarious scene or a single line, comical or pathetically emo. I don't care, I just want something to kinda celebrate with and something to give me a short break from Clay Warrior. I'm gonna leave the window for suggestions open until I post chapter 14.

So yeah, here's the actual chapter now.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Chapter 13

My uncle was the eldest of three children. Stubborn through and through, he had the talent to become a ninja but he never took advantage of it. He became a merchant, and the only thing that I know about it was that his father wasn't very happy. Apparently my grandfather's brother had been the Tsuchikage at one point, so there was a lot of pressure in the family to become powerful nin. I wouldn't know- I never met anyone besides my uncle. I've seen my aunt a few times, too, but it's not like I've ever talked to her.

I think my father was a ninja. I think my mother was, too. So was my aunt- she was an ANBU, that I know for a fact. My mother died sometime when I was born, I don't know if it was natural causes or if my uncle just disposed of her. I don't have any memories of her at all, so it must have been before my first birthday. My father's probably still alive, but I have no idea. He doesn't know anything about me, though.

Don't start thinking this is some sappy orphan story. I never even realized I was an 'orphan' until I was older. For the first five years of my life or so, I thought life was perfectly normal. I was raised in the basement of my uncle's mansion, totally isolated from the world until I realized I could slip out for a few hours without anyone noticing. But that wasn't until I had enough skill to run up a wall and get down halls without being spotted by servants. So I was cared for by random women my uncle hired for the job, and visited sometimes by my uncle or his mistress, Minanoko. I wasn't sure who they were at first. I didn't know what they were doing, either. For a while I was convinced they were my parents, though I later figured differently. My uncle was indeed my uncle, and his 'mistress' was actually the woman married to my father. Conveniently enough for her, my father was sleeping around enough to get some other woman pregnant. It saved her from having to use her own child.

Hell, I was lucky with that one, too. I wouldn't be able to stand having that bitch as my mother.

My childhood doesn't really have much to do with why my uncle is after me, but I'll include it anyway. The leader'll probably get pissy if I leave something out. When I could walk, Minanoko began training me. It was obvious at that point that she wanted me to become a ninja, and a powerful one at that. I was bright for my age, but that wasn't enough for her. She taught me all kinds of random jutsu, ones that normal ninja wouldn't dare use. Most of them were too clumsy to ever be of use, but the first one she ever taught me was one of my favorites. It always had been. It was a jutsu that involved fusing your own chakra with another object, allowing you the ability to detonate it. Explosions varied on the amount of chakra. I just never forgot that one.

Sometime in my fifth year, maybe my sixth, I figured out how to sneak out of the mansion. I'm not sure how old I was exactly, because I'm not quite sure when my birthday is. I think it's in the fall sometime...I remember a little party one of my caretakers had for me, they called it a birthday party. The trees in the courtyard had red leaves...I remember it because I loved the color. Red, and orange. Like a flame.

But the first time I snuck out...it was probably the biggest shock of my life. To find this whole world outside my little mansion. An entire community, with other children, other ninja, normal people. Just walking around, getting somewhere or another, like anyone else that was free. I spent hours on end just...watching. I got out in the evening, mostly. That was when I was pretty much ignored by the maids and the servants. After dinner, when they'd put me to bed. So I'd leave the mansion, and wander.

It wasn't long before I met Shiruba. He was an artist, actually. A simple civilian painter. And he must have thought I was crazy for the first month of our friendship, too, considering I was this little six-year-old kid that just waltzed through his door like his house was a candy shop. But I was drawn by the paintings he had hanging outside, the ones he was trying to sell. And I think the reason he didn't just kick me out when he first saw me was because he saw how fascinated I was by what he did. I could stare at the paintings, the sketches, for hours. But I loved his sculptures the most. They were the most real to me, three dimensional and _there_. I began visiting Shiruba so often that he began teaching me how to sculpt, how to draw...anything I asked him to teach me, he would. I don't know why he did. A little child's charm, or reasons of his own. I never wondered, back then. I was just happy that I got to do something besides train to fight.

I was visiting Shiruba for about a year. Then, Minanoko found out about it. The bitch could get _angry_ when she wanted to, and maybe my little escapades were part of the reason she began doing what she did. She'd been just training up until that point, but starting that summer, probably of my eight year...

She started...experimenting...

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Sasori was mildly startled, when he realized Deidara had stopped talking. His younger partner didn't seem to notice he had done so, either- he was staring at the stone floor with a wide, empty blue eye, far from this time, this place. Every few seconds his lips twitched, whether in a snarl of defiance or silent words, Sasori wasn't sure. It didn't end, though. Maybe somewhat ignorantly Sasori assumed the boy would get a hold of himself- that he'd control that convulsing throat and clenching fists, and bring that gaze back to reality, see what was actually in front of him. He didn't. He didn't continue, just sat there...staring.

The puppet master frowned and stood. Before this point, he'd known Deidara's past was not the best. He'd known, because of Deidara's refusal to tell the tale. That and the assumption that no one that joined the Akatsuki had good lives. A ninja didn't leave their village for no reason. They all had an ambition, a drive, a need that brought them here, and it was the reason for that drive that most would not tell their life stories. A reason that had sent them to the edge of endurance, made them leave their home, the place they were supposed to have loyalty to.

He had the sinking feeling that, in telling his tale, Deidara just stumbled upon his reason. The boy wasn't going to continue unless prompted. And even though Sasori had resolved after the day he'd had to endure that emotions most definitely weren't a good thing, he found himself unable to give that prompt. After all the confusion, the unexpected pain, the doubt the Leader had handed to him on a silver platter- he'd resolved to let it all go. Bonds weren't good things, they caused hurt, agony, and that was it. He thought he'd learned that lesson back in Suna, as a child. Obviously, he was wrong. He'd gained himself one last bond- one with a fickle, unpredictable golden-haired missing nin. And at one time, he would have been able to say with confidence that he knew how Deidara thought. That the boy's emotions were on his face, and maybe some of that bond he had with the Iwa nin came from that confidence.

That confidence was no longer there. No reinforcement for a bond that was fragile from the start- that may not even _exist_. Sasori had resolved to let it go, before it started hurting more than it already did. But if he could not prod Deidara into continuing, what did that say about his success in breaking the bond? Something that should have been so trivial...why was it difficult?

Maybe he truly had no say in what he felt. A daunting prospect, but one that had been at the back of his mind longer than he cared to remember. He _operated _off control. Not having control...well, it went against everything he'd worked for, everything he _was_.

It was with his mind lost in thought and far from what was before him that he stood from his chair. He didn't even really realize he was moving until he was staring into a glazed blue eye. And even then, it took until he had one hand outstretched and resting Deidara's shoulder for his mind to catch up to his body. The physical contact seemed to catch the boy's attention, at any rate. His gaze was finally on his older partner, however reluctant the shift of focus seemed to be.

The silence lingered. It was obvious Deidara didn't know what to say, how to continue, and Sasori wasn't helping the matter any. Torn between forcing more information out of Deidara an just trying to comfort him, Sasori wasn't quite sure which held more importance. All logic in him pointed towards the first choice; even the resolution to break all emotional bonds with the blonde before him supported getting more information. But he found he couldn't force the words to make Deidara continue past his wooden lips. It would hurt Deidara to do that, and Sasori couldn't stand the thought of watching him go through more pain. There had been enough suffering today.

So, when all else failed, compromise. If there was one thing Sasori had learned over his long life, stability and moderation were the two most valuable lessons.

"Deidara, can you tell me just why your uncle is after you now?" He kept his eyes focused on Deidara's, and all emotion out of his voice. But he was sure, despite the flatness of his tone, that the blonde understood the significance of the statement. Sasori was sacrificing information for Deidara's comfort.

"I escaped him and burned down the manor, yeah. That's all I remember. I think I have something he wants, but I don't know what it is." The boy forced out. The strained note in his voice grated against Sasori's ears, pricked at him because he knew it shouldn't have been there.

"I'll go report to Leader, then." Sasori stated, and turned to go. He could do nothing about the wounds Deidara bore, both physical and mental. Not when he was so confused, had so many doubts floating through his own mind. Leader couldn't have spoken true, before, but still...it made Sasori question something that had once been a fact. If he couldn't read Deidara, then had all of his opinions, deductions about the boy been wrong?

No...Sasori couldn't help a man he didn't know.

"Sasori-danna."

The voice made him stop, but he didn't turn around. He didn't know if he could trust the face he would see if he did.

"What, Deidara?"

"Will you be coming back?"

"I don't know."

He wasn't quite sure what Deidara was really asking. But if the assumption was right, and the boy wasn't talking about coming back from Leader's office, then it was true, what he said. He really didn't know if things would- could- go back to the way they were an hour ago. Sasori didn't know if he could come back to that bond. If that bond was ever there in the first place.

"There's nothing I can do, is there...yeah..."

That hadn't sounded like Deidara. It was the blonde's voice, it came from the blonde's mouth, but it wasn't _Deidara_. It was dark, it was resigned, it was listless. Almost lifeless. Everything Deidara _wasn't._

Maybe it was that strange, new tone Deidara had taken on that made Sasori turn around. Perhaps it was the fleeting notion that no one could fake a tone like that. No matter how good an actor Deidara was, he couldn't manage to sound like that by will.

"Can you look me in the eye, and tell me you want me to come back?" Sasori asked. In any other mouth, it may have been taunting. In his, it was a simple question.

There was no hesitance. Deidara looked him dead on, his single blue eye blazing.

"I love you, yeah."

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

On the outskirts of Iwa, there was a mansion. Rather, it had been a mansion at one point in its life, because the mass of charred rubble that decorated the ground could no longer be called a mansion. The ruins looked ancient, as if they had been rotting away for years. And indeed, they had. The building could have been rebuilt, but somehow, he'd never gotten around to giving the order.

The man staring at the rubble sighed, and clasped his hands behind his back. He was tall and well-built, with a well-made yukata wrapped about his frame. His long blond hair was kept in a loose tie, so the light strands fell evenly down the center of his back, neat and perfect, like everything else about him. Dark blue eyes scanned the mansion, then turned to an attendant that was standing off to his left.

"Yes?" His voice was a deep baritone, and refined. He sounded much older than he looked.

"One of the agents came back today. He says they've had success." The attendant stated, sounding just as refined as the man himself did.

The man laughed, a rich and cultured sound. "So the boy has finally stopped running, has he?"

There was a pause, but no answer came from the attendant. The man hadn't expected one, though...the question had been rhetoric. He turned from the decrepit ruins of his manor, and gestured to the horses tethered not far off, ready to be ridden.

"Let us head back, then. I believe it's time to get serious."

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX


	14. Chapter 14

A/N:

Holy fudgemonkeys, did Markition actually _update_?! Why yes, yes I did. After more than a year's worth of waiting, I actually wrote the 14th chapter, and am about half-way done with the 15th. I really have nothing to say about the period I was gone, other than the fact that junior year is a pain, and summer is a beautiful, beautiful thing.

I also don't have much to say about this chapter, other than the fact that half of it was written a year ago, so it might be...uh...choppy. I tried to minimize that as much as I could, but nobody's perfect.

On another note, the winners of that number-guessing thing I had last chapter (yeah, anybody remember that? I almost forgot myself) were both Agent Kits, with a fic involving the phrase 'Because life's broken into a million pieces, each one so small and sharp it's hard to avoid the edges...' and Asyh, with the prompt "everything I do, I do it for you". I'm posting the fic those two prompts created as a story on itself...you guys can go check that out if you're interested. It's another Sasori/Deidara one, titled "And the World Falls Apart." Now, without further ado, the chapter.

Chapter 14

Deidara could only watch as Sasori turned and left the room without a word. Probably going to make that report to the leader, to get the man off his back. What bothered him was that he had no idea what was going on in Sasori's head. For once, he couldn't even guess. He didn't know what would happen, and he was totally helpless to that ignorance. If there was one thing he hated, it was not knowing.

He let himself slowly lean to the side, then finally just fall over onto the bed from the sitting position he'd been in. His golden hair fanned out around him, obscured his vision of the rest of the room. He'd never gotten the chance to put his hair back up into the usual tie he had it in ever since coming back to the base, and that made it unruly. Frowning, he lifted a hand to brush the blond strands back, but stopped and stared at the limb when he realized it was trembling.

Was he really that scared? Sasori was the only man he'd ever met that he'd become attached to like this, but certainly he wasn't one of a kind. If Sasori refused him, Deidara would live. He'd live, and move on. Life wasn't going to end with something as irrational as 'heartbreak'. It wasn't even a tangible wound.

Sighing, Deidara let his hand drop back to the bed. He had the sinking feeling that he wasn't going to succeed in fooling himself. He knew that is was true, that life _would_ go on, but it sure as hell didn't feel like it.

It took him a surprisingly long time to realize his side was hurting. The kind of annoying, stabbing pain when a wound was pushed or pressed against. He grunted, and turned to face the ceiling to get his weight off the open wound. And again he was lying in bed; that seemed to be all he'd been doing recently. But healing took time, he supposed. All kinds of healing.

Staring at the ceiling like he was, time seemed to slow down to a crippled crawl. He could hear the occasional shuffle of feet outside his door, one member or another walking by his room to who-knew-where. He knew that none of them were going to enter- the leader had probably banned anyone from entering his room, and even if he hadn't, no one had any business with him- but despite the knowledge his heart picked up every time he heard a sound other than his own breathing. Was it another nin sent by his family, looking for him? Was it the Leader, come to wrench the last bit of the story out of him?

Was it Sasori?

It wasn't going to be Sasori. It was going to be the Leader. Hell, an assassin would be more likely to walk through that door than Sasori was. The Puppet Master had left the room with not even a pause of hesitation, and Deidara didn't think he'd be coming back. Why would he? Missing nin were notorious for their instincts in self-preservation. Keeping himself unharmed and happy would be at the top of Sasori's priorities, and that certainly didn't involve coming back to a blond-haired pyromaniac.

Deidara had almost dozed off out of sheer necessity when he heard the door open. He tensed and his heart was in his throat as he looked to the open doorway. He half expected to see the troubled brown eyes of his partner, regardless of his internal doubts, and maybe that was why he was so crestfallen when he didn't.

The Leader looked down at him with stern eyes, his hands folded behind his back. The door swung shut behind him, leaving the two alone in the room, and for a fleeting moment, Deidara desperately wished that it hadn't closed. Maybe Sasori had been following behind him, but there was no one there.

He closed his eyes and looked away from the Leader. Maybe this was how Sasori had felt earlier. Maybe this was what betrayal was.

"Sasori has made his report." The Leader began. "I do apologize for all the fuss this has caused, but knowing this will make everything easier."

Deidara didn't answer. The wall seemed to capture his eyes, like there was something interesting in the bland surface. It was easier to stare at than the Leader was, at any rate.

"You're going to have to lead us to him, you realize. I'll send Kisame and Itachi along with you, to help out, but no one knows Iwa as well as you."

"I know." His voice was hoarser than he expected. He blamed it on the annoying little lump that refused to go away, sitting at the back of his throat. "As soon as I can travel I'll go, yeah."

"Good. I'll send someone in to check on you later." The Leader murmured, then left. The door clicked shut behind him.

Deidara sucked in a breath through his teeth, and turned his back on the door completely. 'Send someone in'. Probably Kisame, then. Or maybe Hidan, if he was in the base. And once he could stand without wincing, he'd be off, leading the Uchiha and the shark off to Iwa to kill a man who just never gave up.

He didn't think he'd be coming back, after that. Kisame would cover for him, say that he died in battle or something. And he'd go to the ends of the earth to escape the man who he never expected to see again.

Xxxxxx

Kisame wasn't really a 'people person', so to speak. He liked killing people much more than he liked talking to them. He liked talking to them even more than he liked taking _care_ of them. But he was well aware of what Deidara had tried to pull earlier, and he knew that he was probably the only one willing to go make sure he didn't die. Sasori sure as hell didn't look like he was going to budge from the corner he'd lodged himself in.

The shark nin rolled his eyes and picked up the tray he'd carefully set. He figured Deidara had to be hungry by now, so he'd found a bit of soup and whatnot. He'd even remembered to cook the meat before putting it in this time. He hefted the Samehada onto his back before he picked the wooden tray up, carefully balancing the contents on it. He gave Sasori a brief glare before heading out of the kitchen, down the hall.

The puppet master was being useless again...Kisame would have to kick his ass for that later. Moping around wasn't going to get anything done. And moping in a corner that happened to be very near the kitchen was even worse, because Kisame was going to have to _look_ at him every time he walked through the area, which happened to be one of the centers of the Akatsuki base. Damn useless psycho...

It took him a couple of minutes to get to Deidara's room, considering he had to watch the tray and make sure he didn't spill anything. That led into almost walking into walls and tripping over a euphoric and bleeding Hidan, but he made it there. He knocked once before just opening the door and shutting it behind him.

Well, Deidara was there. That was a good sign. And it looked like he was breathing. That was even better. He was on his side and facing away from the door, and it didn't look like he even twitched when Kisame entered the room, but maybe that was just due to fatigue. Was he asleep? With that notion in mind, Kisame walked across the room as silently as he could, and set the food on the bedside table. He leaned over the blond to get a look at his face, and started when he saw the single visible blue eye open and trained on the wall.

"Hey, Deidara. I brought ya some food." Kisame stated, poking at the blond's bared shoulder. Deidara stirred but didn't look at him, didn't speak. "Ya gotta eat, kid. An' with injuries like _those_, ya gotta eat a _lot_."

Deidara mumbled something.

"Eh?" Kisame blinked. "I'm over here, kid, not in the blankets."

"...'m not hungry." It was louder, though the words were just as slurred.

"Well, that's good for you. Yer eatin' anyway." Kisame stated, then sat down on the edge of the bed. Deidara flinched at that, for some reason. The shark nin frowned. He knew the _gist_ of what had occurred a couple of hours ago- but he didn't know the whole story. Maybe it would be smart to invest in finding out exactly what had gone on, if only for the sake of being prepared to deal with this kid on the way over to Iwa. And having some leverage to get Sasori out of his corner. "C'mon, sit up, or I'm gonna shove the bowl down your _throat_."

That got Deidara moving, albeit slowly. Probably because everyone in the Akatsuki knew Kisame didn't make idle threats. Once the blond was sitting and didn't look like he was just going to topple over again, he handed him the bowl, as well as a pair of chopsticks. Deidara took the items and began eating indifferently. His one blue eyes was focused on the food and the food alone, unable to meet Kisame's eyes- or unwilling to.

"You gonna tell me what happened?" Kisame asked, after some minutes of silence. He wasn't really curios in a sympathetic sense- hell, Deidara could commit suicide and Kisame wouldn't bat an eye- he wanted to know more for the fact that he didn't want to travel all the way to Iwa with the kid having that look in his eye. It would just piss him off, and that wouldn't be beneficial to the whole mission thing.

Slowly, like he seemed to be doing everything else, Deidara shook his head. "Doesn't matter now. What's done's done, yeah." Eye blank, he continued eating.

Well, he wasn't going to get anything out of this end. Off to bug Sasori, then. He'd know. "Fine. I'll come check back on ya in an hour or two." And with that, Kisame stood and left the room. Deidara didn't protest in the least.

He made his way back down the hall, to the kitchen area. Hidan was still in the hallway, only Kakuzu was there too, yelling at him this time. Kisame couldn't help but roll his eyes as he passed them. They really were something, those two. He didn't stand by to watch, however- he was on a mission to figure something out, after all. In a minute he was standing before a rather dark, empty corner.

Damn. He'd moved.

Kisame grumbled to himself and glanced around the immediate area. It was as empty as the corner had been. With no puppet master found, he widened the area of his search, and walked around aimlessly for a full five minutes before finally deciding to check Sasori's rooms. He didn't really _want_ to, but the thought of getting Deidara out of whatever slump he was in was a little more desirable than the negative aspects of snooping around Sasori's workroom.

So, a little annoyed, Kisame walked back down the hall in the direction of the Puppet Master's workroom. The hall leading there was eerily empty, and even more eerily silent. It was the kind of uneasy atmosphere of a battlefield- a _killing_ field- a forest after a fire. Or maybe more along the lines of a forest, just before it erupted into flames. A clearing that knew it was about to host a battle. Or even a mixture of the two. There was a kind of morbid tension, as well as a complete doomed exhaustion that somehow confused the predator in him. He wasn't quite sure what to make of it, because it was such a contradictory thing...it almost made him growl aloud, in instant dislike.

It felt like years, to reach the door. It also felt like less than a second, entirely too fast. But, nonetheless, Kisame found himself staring at the closed door to Sasori's workroom. And he stared at it for quite a while before he finally reached out a hand, deciding that there wasn't really anything that could happen, beyond Sasori being peeved at him. So he grabbed hold of the door handle, ignored the instincts that were screaming at him to turn around, and opened the door.

In retrospect, he probably should have _expected_ Sasori to be working on a puppet. What else would he be doing? It was his _workroom_, after all. Kisame snorted, shut the door, and casually made his way toward Sasori's form. The puppet master was bent over the largest worktable in the room, his back to the door, and small curled shavings of wood were dropping to the floor beside him at a steady pace. Kisame's silver, shark-like eyes flicked to the floor, but he didn't stop his approach. He was here with a goal, and the shark nin wasn't going to leave without his answers.

Because of his height, he could easily see over Sasori's shoulder. The puppet wasn't looking like much more than a block of wood at the moment, meaning he'd just begun work on the thing...which was strange, considering there was a shelf of half-finished puppets along one of the walls. The guy couldn't need any more new projects, could he? Well, he was as insane as the rest of the Akatsuki, maybe he couldn't stay with the same thing for more than a week.

Kisame was about to say something to catch the guy's attention, but he noticed something resting next to the block of wood. Two somethings, actually. A wooden eyeball, painted blue, and fake blond hair, kept together with a string.

And here, Kisame had thought they'd gotten over the Deidara-puppet thing.

"So, the kid's been staring at a wall for the past hour, an' you're makin' a puppet of him." Kisame's voice visibly startled Sasori—the man froze completely, the stead stream of wood chips ceased to fall. "Care to tell me what's up?"

After a very long silence, Sasori's hands got back to work, carving what looked to be an elegantly shaped hand. "...What are you doing here, Kisame?"

"Sniffin' out answers, before I have to go on a journey with that kid."

Another silence fell. If this guy was going to take five minutes to answer every question, it was going to be a _long_ conversation.

"I've no answers to give you," Sasori murmured.

Kisame growled, took hold of a wooden shoulder, and spun the puppet master around without warning. It was easy, he was twice Sasori's size and had been trained physically since he could walk. The only gratification he received for the abrupt action was a brief look of shock that went through those brown eyes, before they were expressionless again.

"Bull shit." His low, graveling voice was more suited to a snarl than it was spoken words. He didn't bother to hide that fact, now. "Listen, something's wrong with _both_ of you. Now tell me what happened."

"There was a discussion," dodgy, vague, a typical Sasori response, "and a lack of trust was brought to attention. That is all."

When he'd entered the room, Kisame had felt pretty confident about getting answers from Sasori. Normally the puppet master was able to recall any conversation to the last detail, and was willing to relate information if it meant being left alone. This kind of hesitance was making the shark nin doubt his own cause.

"That doesn't till me anythin', and you know it." He wasn't one of those social, delicately-pick-up-the-small-details type. If it wasn't blunt and obvious, it was too much work for his liking.

Sasori said nothing further. He just stared up at Kisame with flat, expressionless eyes, patiently waiting for the larger man to release his grip, so he could get back to work. He made a brief attempt at staring the puppet master down, eventually realized it was hopeless, and reluctantly let Sasori go. The shark nin watched the puppet master work for a few minutes, before he left, having no better idea what happened than when he'd entered.

Well, he had that cryptic statement.

Kisame sighed, and crossed his arms over his burly chest. Maybe Itachi would have an idea, or two...

XxxxxxxxxxX

Deidara let his gaze flit briefly to the door, when it opened again. He half-expected to see Kisame's silver eyes. Maybe that was why he was so startled when he found unreadable gray-toned black pits staring at him. He blinked his blue eye, and picked his head up off the bridge of his knees, despite himself. "Itachi...?"

The Uchiha said nothing, until he reached Deidara's bedside. The man was carrying a chair with him, though he only noticed that until Itachi moved to set it down beside Deidara's bed. The man sat down, and removed a scroll from his sleeve, still with no explanation. Using the very business-like moves that characterized him, the Uchiha spread the scroll out on the bed, between Deidara and himself. Deidara, again belatedly, realized it was a map. Of Iwa.

"Leader just informed me that we're to set off as soon as you are battle capable."

Deidara was not such a fool as to miss the significance of _battle capable_, and the difference between that term and _battle ready_. "And you want to plot a course, yeah?"

Itachi scanned the map, before looking up and meeting Deidara's singular gaze. "Not a course, so much as an area I can have scouted. I dislike running blind into new territory."

He nodded silently, and pointed to a small area, just outside the village's walls. He also noticed, in passing, how pale his hand was compared to Itachi's. Usually he was the tan one. "That's the last place I saw my uncle, yeah. I don't know where he is now, but it's best to start there."

Itachi marked the spot with a bit of ink, as well as a few other locations Deidara pointed out as being important. The process only lasted about five minutes, and consisted of nothing but dry discussion on Iwa's geography. Even though it was one of the last places he wanted to go, Deidara found the talk pleasantly distracting. Planning a mission was such a factual, every-day thing; it was familiar, and he took joy in that familiarity. He wasn't sure if Itachi bothered to notice the change, but he could feel himself becoming more talkative as the discussion wore on—what they would need to bring, how long it would take to get there—and even as he skirted around the more personal anecdotes, he was able to divulge information without hesitating. It was better than he had been two days ago, when he'd been unwilling to mention Iwa in the slightest.

Finally, Itachi rolled up the map and slipped it back into his sleeve. But, surprisingly, he didn't move to leave. He caught Deidara's gaze with his own enigmatic one, and the younger man found himself pinned under a gaze that was as intimidating as it was searching.

"Kisame is questioning how efficient you'll be, on this coming mission, Deidara." Nothing, not the slightest flicker of emotion went across the Uchiha's face. "He's concerned with your emotional state getting in the way of your ability to carry out your goals. What concerns him, concerns me."

He should have expected this, he realized. Kisame and Itachi weren't outwardly the closest of partners in the Akatsuki, but they worked together the smoothest by far. And there was a reason for that—similar goals, similar expectations, and similar worries. He had no idea what they acted like, when alone with each other, but something that Kisame was worried about was bound to make its way to Itachi. And somehow, denying Kisame information was much easier than denying Itachi.

Still, Deidara could be stubborn if he wanted to. He'd denied the leader under threat of torture. A simple cold-hearted glare wasn't nearly enough to scare him. He made a soft noise, sounding like a grunted "yeah," and he carefully averted his gaze to one of the far corners of the room. He could hear Itachi shift, and the legs of the chair scrape the floor as he stood.

"Come to a decision soon, preferably before we leave." Footsteps, as he began walking away. "I'd like to know ahead of time if we'll be returning with you or not."

He still didn't respond—but this time, it was because he didn't know what to say. The door closed, Deidara gave it one last look, before laying down again. Things were becoming very difficult, very fast.


End file.
